By Chris Oddo | Wednesday March 1, 2017
The draw gods weren’t smiling on Novak Djokovic when they set him up with a second-round encounter with Juan Martin del Potro at the Abierto Mexicano in Acapulco this week. Turns out the top-seeded Serb may have gotten exactly what he needed.
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Djokovic battled tooth-and-nail with Del Potro for over two and a half hours, and eventually rallied from a break down in the final set to claim a soul-quenching 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 triumph over the Argentine.
Djokovic, who famously fell to Del Potro at last year’s Rio Olympic Games and left the court in tears, responded to the myriad challenges that Del Potro presented him with and played the brand of spirited, crisp tennis that we’ve come to know him for.
He had to be better than simply good to get by Del Potro, who went on the attack early and often and was fierce with the forehand all evening. Djokovic matched strokes with Del Potro in the opener, but it was the Argentine who broke things open by winning six of the final seven points, beginning with this massive forehand, struck with Djokovic serving at 4-4, 30-all.
But Djokovic was not discouraged, and that was a consistent theme on this night. He continued to plug away and broke Del Potro twice in the second set, including decisively in the 10th game (after giving back his first break) to send the match to a decider.
Djokovic fell behind by a break when Del Potro ripped a forehand pass down the line to close the seventh game, but the Serb proved to be resilient down the stretch as he claimed the break back immediately and then broke Del Potro once more to clinch the match, finishing affairs when his overhead from the baseline glanced off Del Potro’s racquet.
Djokovic moves on to face Nick Kyrgios in the quarterfinals. The Aussie eased past Donald Young in straight sets earlier on Wednesday.
Nadal Imperious in Rout of Lorenzi
Rafael Nadal demonstrated some of his most dominant tennis on Wednesday when he blasted past Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi, 6-1, 6-1, in just 66 minutes. The Spaniard was dominant off the forehand side and served with purpose, dropping just seven points on serve all evening and never facing a break point.
Nadal moves on to face Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka in the quarterfinals.
Also advancing on Wednesday was Marin Cilic, who defeated Borna Coric in three sets, and Dominic Thiem, who got past Adrian Mannarino in straight sets.