By Chris Oddo | Wednesday June 15, 2016
Fancy a ho-hum ace-a-thon between giant servers on grass? Yeah, yeah, we know what you’re thinking. Sounds good in theory, but if it ends up taking three days and the final set lasts 138 games, then maybe not.
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Enter Juan Martin del Potro, who brightened things up a bit at Queen’s Club on Wednesday during his straight-sets loss to John Isner.
Struggling with the ballistic serving of the American, Del Potro had some fun to break the monotony (see videos above and below). The crowd enjoyed it—even Isner enjoyed it—as Del Potro lightheartedly celebrated a let call on a would-be Isner ace.
But that wasn’t all Del Potro did for laughs. He also did this:
Pure, comedic sensibilities from the Tower of Tandil, who ended up falling to Isner, 7-6(2), 6-4. If you’re scoring at home, Isner hit 25 aces in 11 service games. That’s a lot. Enough to make an opponent cry—or laugh.
Things turned serious a game later in the match as Del Potro twice tumbled to the grass while trying to hold serve at 4-4 in set two.
Isner got the break and served out the match in the next game. Meanwhile, Del Potro, who struggled to get up after each fall, appeared to be okay.
Isner moves on to face Gilles Muller in the second round.