Juan Martin Del Potro is through to the third round of Wimbledon after recording his best victory since his comeback to tour by defeating Stan Wawrinka.
The Argentine lost the opening set but came back to win in four sets 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(2),6-4 under the roof on Centre Court. It secures Del Potro’s first win over a top five player in two and a half years and continues his run at SW19 in his return to Grand Slam level.
Wawrinka made his intentions to boss the match clear from the get go with a string of big serves and ground-strokes from the back of the court. I was not long before the Swiss broke for the first time as Del Potro struggled to keep up with his pace. The Argentine progressively got better as the set wore on however, and found some of the signature forehands that won him the US Open in 2009. Del Potro would earn his first look at a break as Wawrinka served for the set, but the World no.5 was able to turn the game around to seal it 6-3.
The second set started rather tamely with both players making errors. Wawrinka earned break point at 1-1 but failed to convert, so instead it would be the Argentine that would earn the break through in the second set. The Swiss was getting a little more sloppy in his play and soon found himself set point down at 5-2. A backhand was called wide but the fifth seed successfully challenged the call to force Del Potro to serve it out. The serve was key for the unseeded player as he was making over 80% of his first serves in set two, and he successfully served it out to level the match at one set all.
The sloppy errors from Wawrinka continued into set three and he was once against broken in the opening game of the set. Del Potro could not capitalise however and Wawrinka struck back immediately to level it 1-1. There was another break of serve in the following game, and then Wawrinka broke back again to continue the break-fest of a third set. The pair would then hold all the way to a tiebreaker where Del Potro would take control. Stan got tight and all of a sudden the US open champion of 2009 was in front by two sets to one.
The fourth set went largely with serve but it was Del Potro who was knocking on the door. Two break points came and went at 3-2, but he would earn another chance at 4-3 which he would take after Wawrinka hit a backhand long. The question was now, could he serve it out? The answer was yes. Some vintage clutch play from Del Potro earned the victory, much to the delight of everyone in the tennis world. ‘Del Po’ is back and you better take notice.
He will move on to face Lucas Pouille who defeated Donald Young in straight sets. With the right draw and play, then we could see Del Potro back in the latter stages of a major tournament which will be great to see.
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