Juan
Martin del Potro saved four break points in the decider to battle past
Georgian qualifier Nikoloz Basilashvili yesterday and reach the Shanghai
Masters second round.
The Argentine, who prevailed 6-2, 3-6, 6-4,
looked on course for a routine win after taking the first set in 23
minutes but world number 59 Basilashvili pounced on his errors in the
next to level the match.
Attacking Del Potro’s serve at 4-4 in the
third, Basilashvili earned four chances to break and serve for the
match. But the 2013 finalist defended resolutely and switched gears to
set up a meeting with Russian teenager Andrey Rublev.
South Korea’s
Chung Hyeon eased past world number 13 Roberto Bautista Agut, last
year’s runner-up, 6-4, 6-3 to equal the best victory of his career.
World number 60 Chung, who beat David Goffin when the Belgian was ranked
13th in Montreal this year, next faces Richard Gasquet.
American
qualifier Frances Tiafoe stunned Benoit Paire 6-4, 6-4 and fired a
warning to the experienced players on the Tour. Also advancing to the
next round were Feliciano Lopez who defeated big-serving Ivo Karlovic
7-6(1) 7-6(6) and Britain’s Kyle Edmund who downed Jiri Vesely 6-3 6-2.
Roger Federer, the 2014 champion, starts his campaign tomorrow. The
Swiss 19-times grand slam winner begins his campaign against the winner
of today’s clash between Diego Schwartzman and Jordan Thompson.
Battling Stosur ‘100 percent’ after injury-hit year
Former
US Open champion Sam Stosur declared she felt “100 percent” again after
she battled into the second round of the WTA Hong Kong Open in three
sets yesterday.
Stosur, who is on the comeback trail after suffering a
stress fracture of her right hand in June when in tip-top form,
appeared to be cruising at a set and 3-1 up against the unheralded Lee
Ya-hsuan of Taiwan.
But the Australian dropped five of the next six
games with a string of unforced errors to let the world number 303 take
the set 6-4. Stosur, 33, drew on all her experience to race through the
third set, cutting out the sloppy mistakes to progress 6-3, 4-6, 6-1. A
resurgent Stosur earlier this year had looked to be approaching the form
that took her to the US Open crown in 2011, winning in Strasbourg this
May. She followed up in June by reaching the last 16 of the French Open
where she was only edged out in a three-set epic by the eventual
champion Jelena Ostapenko. But soon after X-rays revealed the damage to
her troublesome right hand was a bone fracture and she had to take a
complete break.
The only seeded player in action on day one in Hong
Kong, China’s number two Zhang Shuai, wasted little time and energy in
crushing her Japanese opponent Kurumi Nara with a “double bagel” 6-0,
6-0.
Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina whips a backhand during his win over Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia at the Shanghai Masters yesterday. (Reuters)