Sunday, June 26, 2011

Wimbledon - Weary Del Potro eyes first day off

Argentina's Juan Martin Del Potro will finally get a day off after beating Frenchman Gilles Simon 7-6(8) 7-6(5) 7-5 to reach the Wimbledon fourth round for the first time.

The 24th seed, whose three matches this week each straddled two days due to weather problems and scheduling issues, said he would take the opportunity to rest ahead of his Monday clash with world number one Rafael Nadal .

"Finally I will have a day off tomorrow and I will need it, because I will play against Rafa and you need to be 100 percent," the 22-year-old said.

"I had bad luck this week. It is not usual to play all days from Monday to Saturday ... Hopefully for next week, the weather will help me a little more."

After battling to a 10-8 win in a first set tie-break, Del Potro, who missed last year's Wimbledon following surgery on his right wrist, was a break down in the second when his match against 26-year-old Simon was rained off on Friday.

But the rain delay seemed to do the 2009 US Open champion good and he came back fighting, breaking 15th seed Simon at the first opportunity when the match restarted on a sun-bathed Court Two.

After another tie-break, which Del Potro took 7-5, the decider also went with serve until 5-5 as the pair slugged it out from the baseline.

With a third tie-break looming the towering Argentine attempted to edge ahead with a cheeky drop shot which fell short, but Simon handed him the break anyway with a groundstroke into the net.

Serving for the match Del Potro denied his opponent a single point, wrapping up victory with two booming aces before throwing his wristband into the crowd.

Source: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com

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