Del Potro upset by Cilic at the Australian Open 2010

Heading into their fourth round match at Australian Open 2010, not much separated Juan Martin del Potro and Marin Cilic. Both are 198cm tall, while the Argentine is one kilogram heavier than the Croatian. They were even born just five days apart in 1988. As such, it was fitting that they should be split by so little in their tennis, with Cilic edging out the more favoured Argentine over five tough sets, 5-7 6-4 7-5 5-7 6-3, to advance to the quarter-finals.

Del Potro, the reigning US Open champion and the No.4 seed here, has been hyped as the man leading the challenge against Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal’s dominance over the men’s game. Rumours of a wrist injury had dampened some expectations, but he still loomed as a genuine contender at this year’s Australian Open.

Enter the towering 14th-seeded Cilic. Having won his second consecutive Chennai Open, Cilic began 2010 in strong form. In progressing this far, he had fought through a five-set, late-night thriller against Australian teenager Bernard Tomic, then impressively knocked out the highly-rated Stanislas Wawrinka. Despite all this, it seemed that del Potro had the weapons and movement to push deep into the second week.

The opening set saw each man struggle to make any inroads into the other’s serve. When del Potro did finally land the decisive break, it was with some assistance – a Cilic double fault. Shortly afterwards, del Potro closed the set with an ace, seemingly with plenty in the tank.

After the early stages of the second set progressed in a similar vein, a number of del Potro errors in quick succession handed Cilic set points, which were gleefully accepted. Increasing his approaches to the net, the Croat was able to take the game up to his more-fancied opponent, and he levelled at one set-all.

Cilic had begun to look the more dangerous of two, with the Argentine appearing sluggish in his movement. Calling a medical timeout after losing the second set, del Potro received treatment on a foot injury rather than his much-talked-about wrist.

The Croatian continued his dominance at the net, a sensational drop volley giving him set points after del Potro became aggravated at repeated crowd interruptions. Cilic duly converted to take an epic 86-minute third set, and the possibility of a boilover appeared increasingly likely.

Even when not at his best, del Potro remains an outstanding ball striker, and in the 11th game of the fourth set was able to break Cilic to love. His forehand began to find its range, and as he sent the match to a fifth and final set, momentum seemed to shift in favour of the now fired-up Argentine.

With both players having endured five-set matches already in the tournament, fatigue had now well and truly set in. The contest was reduced to a slugfest, with Cilic making just eight of his 67 net approaches for the match in the final set. A wayward del Potro forehand gave Cilic the crucial break, before he saved break points of his own with an ace. Another long del Potro forehand gave Cilic a well-earned victory over four hours and 38 minutes.

Cilic’s work at the net and 21 more winners became the difference between a second successive Grand Slam quarter-final appearance and an early flight home, while del Potro, who came to Melbourne with great expectations, will leave outplayed and out-thought.

Fast facts

- Cilic made 71 unforced errors, while del Potro had 58.

- The Croatian won 82 per cent of points when he landed his first serve; del Potro was successful on 72 per cent of his.

- Cilic won 41 points at the net, while del Potro won 13.

Article from AO

Juan Martin Del Potro Australian Open Interview Day 7 January 24th 2010

Q. You’ve had some very tough matches leading up to today’s game. Did that affect you at all? You looked a little tired.

JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO: Yeah, but this is normal. We play hard match, five sets again. Marin is playing a great tennis.

I think he did better than me and he won.

Q. What do you think the difference was? Where did he get you?

JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO: Well, just the serve in the end. You know, after four hours, you have to focus. And he broke me very soon in the fifth. Then I had my chance in last game. I miss a forehand.

But he play very good.

Q. Did you run into one of the courtside cameras at one stage?

JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO: No.

Q. What about your wrist and foot, those factors today?

JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO: My whole body.

Well, I will go home and I will see the doctors there. I need little rest to recovery and be in good shape for next tournaments.

Q. He’s in his second major quarterfinal in a row. Do you think he’s lifting parts of his game in certain moments?

JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO: He’s playing very well. He won last week. He’s beating everyone.

I think he has the opportunity to keep going. He will play a quarters here against González or Roddick. He can beat both of them. So I wish good luck.

Q. There would have been a lot of extra pressure on you, being a reigning Grand Slam champion. Do you think that weight will be lifted before your next major?

JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO: No, I really enjoyed that pression. The crowd is unbelievable with me. They support me every match, every point. I was down in every match, and they help me to keep fighting, like today. I really like it, that pression.

Interview from AO

Australian Open Results Day 7 Sunday January 24th 2010

Australian Open
Grand Slam
18-31 January, 2010
Melbourne, Australia

Sunday, 24 January 2010

Singles – Fourth Round

[2] R Nadal (ESP) d
I Karlovic (CRO) 64 46 64 64
[14] M Cilic (CRO) d [4] J del Potro (ARG) 57 64 75 57 63
[5] A Murray (GBR) d [33] J Isner (USA) 76(4) 63 62

Doubles – Third Round
[1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) d [17] J Melzer (AUT) / P Petzschner (AUT) 76(1) 64
[2] D Nestor (CAN) / N Zimonjic (SRB) d
P Marx (GER) / I Zelenay (SVK) 64 62
A Clement (FRA) / J Erlich (ISR) d J Brunstrom (SWE) / J Rojer (AHO) 63 06 75
E Butorac (USA) / R Ram (USA) d L Mayer (ARG) / H Zeballos (ARG) 67(3) 64 76(3)

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Juan Martin Del Potro could be the ultimate tennis player. He has all the physical attributes and the ruthless killer instinct to succeed. And a long way to go.

The powerful Argentine aspires to be the best player in the world and there are plenty of good judges who expect he will achieve his goal, perhaps sooner than he thinks.

He is already on his way. He beat Roger Federer in last year’s U.S. Open final to claim his first grand slam title and is ranked fifth in the world.

“It looks like del Potro is the man at the moment,” Patrick Rafter told reporters on Friday. “He’s got an all-round game, he’s a complete player and players don’t like to play him.”

Rafter would be unlikely to find too many people to argue with him although Del Potro was prepared to take issue with the Australian.

“I don’t know. He knows about this sport but I don’t want extra pressure,” Del Potro said.

“I have too much pressure with me. So thank you Patrick, but I have a long way to be the next number one or to be better.”

Despite carrying a wrist injury and playing below his best, Del Potro is proving to be a formidable obstacle to anyone in his path at the Australian Open.

He won an epic five-set match with the American James Blake in the second round on Wednesday then was back at it again on Friday, beating Germany’s Florian Mayer 6-3 0-6 6-4 7-5.

He did suffer a worrying lapse in concentration in the second set but regained his composure to finish off his opponent in two and a half hours and ease into the fourth round.

“Today, especially in the second set, I felt very confused with my game,” he said.

“But I improved a little bit and in the end I finished the match playing some very good points.

Source Reuters

Australian Open Order of Play Day 6 Saturday January 23rd 2010

Rod Laver Arena

11:00 Start Women’s Singles – 3rd Round
Alberta Brianti(ITA) vs. Samantha Stosur(AUS)[13]

Men’s Singles – 3rd Round
Roger Federer(SUI)[1] vs. Albert Montanes(ESP)[31]

Women’s Singles – 3rd Round
Casey Dellacqua(AUS) vs. Venus Williams(USA)[6]

Rod Laver Arena

19:00 Start Men’s Singles – 3rd Round
Lleyton Hewitt(AUS)[22] vs. Marcos Baghdatis(CYP)

Women’s Singles – 3rd Round
Caroline Wozniacki(DEN)[4] vs. Shahar Peer(ISR)[29]

Hisense Arena

11:00 Start Women’s Singles – 3rd Round
Tathiana Garbin(ITA) vs. Victoria Azarenka(BLR)[7]

Women’s Singles – 3rd Round
Serena Williams(USA)[1] vs. Carla Suarez Navarro(ESP)[32]

Men’s Singles – 3rd Round
Novak Djokovic(SRB)[3] vs. Denis Istomin(UZB)

Hisense Arena

19:00 Start Men’s Singles – 3rd Round
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga(FRA)[10] vs. Tommy Haas(GER)[18]

Legends’ Doubles
Henri Leconte(FRA) /Patrick Rafter(AUS) vs. Scott Draper(AUS) /Richard Fromberg(AUS)

Margaret Court Arena

11:00 Start Women’s Singles – 3rd Round
Vera Zvonareva(RUS)[9] vs. Gisela Dulko(ARG)

Men’s Singles – 3rd Round
Juan Monaco(ARG)[30] vs. Nikolay Davydenko(RUS)[6]

Men’s Singles – 3rd Round
Fernando Verdasco(ESP)[9] vs. Stefan Koubek(AUT)

Mixed Doubles – 1st Round
Alisa Kleybanova(RUS)[6] /Max Mirnyi(BLR)[6] vs. Anastasia Rodionova(AUS) /Paul Hanley(AUS)

Not Before:19:00
Mixed Doubles – 1st Round
Casey Dellacqua(AUS) /Jordan Kerr(AUS) vs. Lucie Hradecka(CZE) /Frantisek Cermak(CZE)

Show Court 2

11:00 Start Men’s Doubles – 2nd Round
Michael Kohlmann(GER) /Jarkko Nieminen(FIN) vs. Colin Fleming(GBR) /Ken Skupski(GBR)

Not Before:12:30
Women’s Singles – 3rd Round
Agnieszka Radwanska(POL)[10] vs. Francesca Schiavone(ITA)[17]

Legends Doubles 45 and Over
John Fitzgerald(AUS) /Anders Jarryd(SWE) vs. Mansour Bahrami(IRI) /Wally Masur(AUS)

Men’s Singles – 3rd Round
Nicolas Almagro(ESP)[26] vs. Alejandro Falla(COL)

Show Court 3

11:00 Start Men’s Singles – 3rd Round
Mikhail Youzhny(RUS)[20] vs. Lukasz Kubot(POL)

Men’s Doubles – 2nd Round
Feliciano Lopez(ESP) /Rainer Schuettler(GER) vs. Arnaud Clement(FRA) /Jonathan Erlich(ISR)

Women’s Singles – 3rd Round
Daniela Hantuchova(SVK)[22] vs. Na Li(CHN)[16]

Men’s Doubles – 2nd Round
Carsten Ball(AUS) /Stephen Huss(AUS) vs. Fernando Gonzalez(CHI) /Ivan Ljubicic(CRO)

Court 6

11:00 Start Women’s Doubles – 2nd Round
Bethanie Mattek-Sands(USA)[8] /Zi Yan(CHN)[8] vs. Jelena Jankovic(SRB) /Shenay Perry(USA)

Men’s Doubles – 2nd Round
Lucas Arnold Ker(ARG) /Horia Tecau(ROU) vs. Lukas Dlouhy(CZE)[3] /Leander Paes(IND)[3]

Mixed Doubles – 1st Round
Bethanie Mattek-Sands(USA)[3] /Bob Bryan(USA)[3] vs. Su-Wei Hsieh(TPE) /Bruno Soares(BRA)

Women’s Doubles – 2nd Round
Victoria Azarenka(BLR) /Svetlana Kuznetsova(RUS) vs. Anna-Lena Groenefeld(GER)[14] /Vania King(USA)[14]

Men’s Doubles – 2nd Round
Kaden Hensel(AUS) /Greg Jones(AUS) vs. Ivo Karlovic(CRO) /Dusan Vemic(SRB)

Court 8

11:00 Start Women’s Doubles – 2nd Round
Agnes Szavay(HUN) /Roberta Vinci(ITA) vs. Vera Dushevina(RUS) /Anastasia Rodionova(AUS)

Women’s Doubles – 2nd Round
Virginie Razzano(FRA) /Yanina Wickmayer(BEL) vs. Elena Vesnina(RUS)[9] /Jie Zheng(CHN)[9]

Men’s Doubles – 2nd Round
Julien Benneteau(FRA) /Steve Darcis(BEL) vs. John Isner(USA) /Sam Querrey(USA)

Women’s Doubles – 2nd Round
Elena Baltacha(GBR) /Liga Dekmeijere(LAT) vs. Maria Kirilenko(RUS)[15] /Agnieszka Radwanska(POL)[15]

Mixed Doubles – 1st Round
Liezel Huber(USA) /Ross Hutchins(GBR) vs. Chia-Jung Chuang(TPE) /Filip Polasek(SVK)

Court 18

11:00 Start Mixed Doubles – 1st Round
Monica Niculescu(ROU) /Julian Knowle(AUT) vs. Flavia Pennetta(ITA) /Marcelo Melo(BRA)

Mixed Doubles – 1st Round
Kveta Peschke(CZE) /Marcin Matkowski(POL) vs. Ekaterina Makarova(RUS) /Jaroslav Levinsky(CZE)

Men’s Doubles – 2nd Round
Leonardo Mayer(ARG) /Horacio Zeballos(ARG) vs. Igor Andreev(RUS) /Evgeny Korolev(KAZ)

Australian Open
Grand Slam
18-31 January, 2010
Melbourne, Australia

Friday, 22 January 2010

Singles – Third Round
[4] J del Potro (ARG) d F Mayer (GER) 63 06 64 75
[5] A Murray (GBR) d F Serra (FRA) 75 61 64
[7] A Roddick (USA) d F Lopez (ESP) 67(4) 64 64 76(3)
[11] F Gonzalez (CHI) d E Korolev (KAZ) 67(5) 63 16 63 64
[33] J Isner (USA) d [12] G Monfils (FRA) 61 46 76(4) 76(5)

Doubles – Second Round
[2] D Nestor (CAN) / N Zimonjic (SRB) d A Montanes (ESP) / M Vassallo Arguello (ARG) 63 63
[5] L Kubot (POL) / O Marach (AUT) d I Kunitsyn (RUS) / D Sela (ISR) 63 62
E Butorac (USA) / R Ram (USA) d [7] M Fyrstenberg (POL) / M Matkowski (POL) 62 36 76(2)
J Brunstrom (SWE) / J Rojer(AHO) d [8] M Granollers (ESP) / T Robredo (ESP) 63 67(5) 64
[11] S Aspelin (SWE) / P Hanley (AUS) d P Amritraj (IND) / S Devvarman (IND) 61 63
S Bolelli (ITA) / A Seppi (ITA) d [14] M Damm (CZE) / F Polasek (SVK) 76(5) 63
[17] J Melzer (AUT) / P Petzschner (GER) d F Fognini (ITA) / P Starace (ITA) 63 62
P Marx (GER) / I Zelenay(SVK) d R Junaid (AUS) / P Luczak (AUS) 76(5) 64

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Australian Open Video: Day 3 Wednesday Night Highlights

Justine Henin, Elena Dementieva, Andy Murray, Juan Martin del Potro and James Blake featured in evening session action Wednesday at the Australian Open.