The first big showdown of the 2011 French Open will be in the third round, pitting tournament-favorite Novak Djokovic against the rebounding Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro. On paper, this match should be a thriller as everyone knows what Delpo is capable of doing when he’s operating at full throttle and he is overdue to re-find his A-plus game after the year off due to injury. Delpo’s results have been disappointing since winning Delray but Paris could be the spark he needs.
Del Potro had a tricky match today with Ivo Karlovic but was able to win in four competitive sets. One more win and he will meet Djokovic in the third round.
Somewhat surprisingly, Delpo and Djokovic have battled three times on the ATP circuit with the Serbian coming out the victor in all three contests. In fact, Djokovic has been nothing short of dominant, having never lost a set to Del Potro. They first met at the U.S. Open in 2007, with Djokovic prevailing easily 61 63 64.
The next meeting was at Masters Cup 14 months later in China – again it was routine, 75 63 for Djokovic.
2009 in Rome was their most recent match, with Djokovic besting the big man again 63 64. That’s seven sets for Djokovic and zero for Delpo.
It’s difficult to see Del Potro suddenly finding the form to knock off the seemingly unbeatable Djokovic but if anyone has the weapons to put some cracks into his armor right now, it’s Delpo.
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djoks · June 11, 2011 at 5:11 pm
go djoks go 🙂