Juan Martin del Potro defeats Hewitt in 3 sets; Haas moves into quarters
By APFriday, August 7, 2009
Juan Martin del Potro defeats Hewitt in 3 sets
WASHINGTON — Juan Martin del Potro rallied to beat Lleyton Hewitt 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (2) in the third round of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic on Thursday night.
No. 10 seed Tommy Haas defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-5, 2-6, 6-1. Fifth-seeded Robin Soderling also needed three sets, but ousted Marc Gicquel 7-5, 5-7, 6-3.
No. 4 seed Fernando Gonzalez advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-4 win over American Wayne Odesnik. No. 11 Ivo Karlovic defeated qualifier Somdev Devvarman 7-5, 6-1 in his third-round match.
All eight remaining seeded players will be in action Thursday, including top-seeded Andy Roddick.
Del Potro, who has dropped the first set in both of his matches this week, was serving for the match at 5-4 in the third, but lost the game at love. Both players held their final service game, setting up the tiebreaker where tied at two, del Potro earned a mini-break with a backhand winner down the line. That started a run of five consecutive points to close out the win for del Potro.
After having his serve broken twice en route to losing the second set, Haas jumped on top of Ferrero quickly in the third, winning the opening five games. Haas, a semifinalist at Wimbledon this year and in this event in 2008, lost four points on his serve in the final set and had 19 aces in the match.
“When you’re down two breaks to a top player like that, it’s hard to keep focused, so at some point, you just start thinking about the third set,” said Haas, who will face Gonzalez in the quarterfinals. “I played a solid third set, so I am really happy with the win.”
Down a break and set point at 4-5 in the first set, Haas rallied to win the final three games, breaking Ferrero’s serve twice. With Ferrero serving at 30-all in the final game, Haas closed the first set with a stellar running backhand down the line followed by a crosscourt forehand winner on set point.
Soderling, who will take on del Potro in the quarterfinals, broke Gicquel’s serve at 4-3 in the third set and finished off the match with an ace, his 15th on the night.
