Del Potro survives qualifier scare

JuanMartin del Potro saved four break points in the decider to battle pastGeorgian qualifier Nikoloz Basilashvili yesterday and reach the ShanghaiMasters 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 23minutes but world number 59 Basilashvili pounced on his errors in thenext to level the match.Attacking Del Potro’s serve at 4-4 in thethird, Basilashvili earned four chances to break and serve for thematch. But the 2013 finalist defended resolutely and switched gears toset up a meeting with Russian teenager Andrey Rublev.South Korea’sChung Hyeon eased past world number 13 Roberto Bautista Agut, lastyear’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 ranked13th in Montreal this year, next faces Richard Gasquet.Americanqualifier Frances Tiafoe stunned Benoit Paire 6-4, 6-4 and fired awarning to the experienced players on the Tour.  Also advancing to thenext round were Feliciano Lopez who defeated big-serving Ivo Karlovic7-6(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. TheSwiss 19-times grand slam winner begins his campaign against the winnerof today’s clash between Diego Schwartzman and Jordan Thompson.Battling Stosur ‘100 percent’ after injury-hit yearFormerUS Open champion Sam Stosur declared she felt “100 percent” again aftershe battled into the second round of the WTA Hong Kong Open in threesets yesterday.Stosur, who is on the comeback trail after suffering astress 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 LeeYa-hsuan of Taiwan.But the Australian dropped five of the next sixgames with a string of unforced errors to let the world number 303 takethe set 6-4. Stosur, 33, drew on all her experience to race through thethird set, cutting out the sloppy mistakes to progress 6-3, 4-6, 6-1. Aresurgent Stosur earlier this year had looked to be approaching the formthat took her to the US Open crown in 2011, winning in Strasbourg thisMay. She followed up in June by reaching the last 16 of the French Openwhere she was only edged out in a three-set epic by the eventualchampion Jelena Ostapenko. But soon after X-rays revealed the damage toher troublesome right hand was a bone fracture and she had to take acomplete break.The only seeded player in action on day one in HongKong, China’s number two Zhang Shuai, wasted little time and energy incrushing her Japanese opponent Kurumi Nara with a “double bagel” 6-0,6-0.