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del Potro weathers the Verdasco challenge

Bhupathi & Knowles rally to beat Fyrstenberg & Matkowski

LONDON: US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro kept alive his challenge at the ATP World Tour Finals with a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(1) victory over Fernando Verdasco on Tuesday.

After losing his opening Group A match to Andy Murray, del Potro knew he had to see off Verdasco in their first ever Tour meeting to remain in contention for a semi-final place.

The 21-year-old rose to the challenge with a typically belligerent display of guts and power-hitting and could qualify for the last four with a win in his last match, against Roger Federer, on Thursday.

Verdasco, 26, is appearing in the Tour Finals for the first time after enjoying the best season of his career. But the left hander looks certain to make an early exit after his second defeat of the round robin stage.

del Potro had been unable to subdue Murray in a three-set encounter on Sunday, while Verdasco dominated the opening stages against World No.1 Federer but also ended up losing in three sets.

Suffering a nose bleed in the first set against Murray had hardly helped del Potro’s cause, but he packed a greater punch in the early stages this time.

In great form

The towering Argentine has risen to fifth in the world rankings after a breakthrough year capped by his shock five-set victory over Federer in September’s US Open final and he showed the form that so impressed in New York as he took control of the first set.

He quickly found his range with some thudding ground-strokes and broke in the third game for a 2-1 lead.

del Potro remained in control until he had to serve for the set at 5-4, then he faltered and allowed Verdasco two break points. The Spaniard couldn’t convert though and del Potro took the set.

Hitting with increasing accuracy from the baseline, Verdasco began to wear down del Potro and broke in the eighth game for a 5-3 lead before serving out the second set.

The final set went down to the wire as both players fought for their tournament lives. Del Potro broke in the sixth game when he successfully challenged that Verdasco’s forehand was out.

But Verdasco wasn’t going to surrender just yet. He saved a match point at 2-5 and then broke back as del Potro served for the match.

del Potro was unable to finish off another match point in the 10th game. But the Argentine finally completed a hard-fought win in comprehensive fashion as he blew Verdasco away in the tie-break.

Tough encounter

Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles enhanced their semifinal chances at the ATP World Tour finals after edging past Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 3-6, 6-3, 10-7 in a tough Group B encounter on Tuesday.

Bhupathi and Knowles had defeated fifth seeds Frantisek Cermak and Michal Mertinak in their first match on Sunday and with second win in a row they are on top of the Group B.

The top two teams from both the groups will qualify for the semifinals.

Last year in Shanghai, Bhupathi and Knowles had crashed out of the prestigious season-ending tournament in the round-robin stage.

“The easiest way to control your destiny is to win all three matches. That’s been our goal. We’ve gotten two down and we’ve got one more to go. The positive is we have two wins now and the pressure is on the other teams,” Bhupathi said.

Bhupathi’s Bahamian partner was all smiles after the win.

“We’re excited, very excited. Especially because they were playing extremely well. They were serving at an incredible rate; very hard, but also high percentage,” he said.

“They were playing really, really well there in the first set. We just kind of rode them out, got a couple looks at a second serve in the second set, and were able to return well and turn the match around.

“We played really solid at the end and kind of raised our level,” Knowles said after the match.

On Monday, Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy suffered a 6-3, 7-6(3) loss to first-timers Lukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach in their first Group A match. .

In a 92-minute contest, both the teams fought hard with many players taking body blows including one in the throat for the 36-year-old Paes.

Dlouhy was targetted by Kubot and Marach in the tie-break and a barrage of shots from the back saw the Czech player break down at the net to give the Polish-Austrian duo a 6-3 lead.

The sixth seeds then converted their first match point as Dlouhy returned the serve long.

On the singles court, Novak Djokovic toughed it out for a 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 win over Nikolay Davydenko in his opening match in Group B.

The results: Singles: Group A: Juan Martin del Potro bt Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(1). Group B: Novak Djokovic bt Nikolay Davydenko3-6, 6-4, 7-5.

Doubles: Group B: Mahesh Bhupathi & Mark Knowles bt Mariusz Fyrstenberg & Marcin Matkowski 3-6, 6-3, 10-7. Group A: Lukasz Kubot & Oliver Marach bt Lukas Dlouhy & Leander Paes 6-3, 7-6(3). — Agencies

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