DEL POTRO LOSES

Gabriela Sabatini’s countryman, Juan Martin Del Potro has been defeated by Jarkko Nieminen of Finland in the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters. Nieminen won the match in three sets by 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(4).

This was another upset by the Finnish veteran. He had pulled off an upset in the second round too by defeating Milos Raonic of Canada.

Nieminen took 2 hours and 37 minutes to defeat Del Potro. He smashed a total of 51 winners in the match.

Before this match, Del Potro had faced Nieminen 4 times and the Argentinean had won all those matches in straight sets.

Nieminen got a great start in the opening set. He broke Del Potro’s serve in the second game and then, served out the next game to go up by 3-0.

The next 5 games went with the serve and the score was 5-3 in Nieminen’s favour when the 8th game got over.

Nieminen dropped his serve in the 9th game which brought down the lead to 5-4.  In the next game, Del Potro required a serve hold to level the scores, but, he couldn’t do that. Nieminen broke his serve for the second time in the set and sealed the set by 6-4.

Nieminen didn’t get a good start in the following set. His serve was broken in the 3rd game and Del Potro got ahead by 2-1. The Argentinean player didn’t lose that lead thereafter. He won his next 4 service games and grabbed the set by 6-4.

In the decider, Del Potro began with a breakthrough in the very first game. He held his serve in the next game and increased his lead to 2-0. But, that lead remained for a very short period. Nieminen broke back in the 4th game to make the scores 2-2.

Both the players got a couple of breakthroughs each in the next 8 games which ensured that the tie breaker would decide the outcome of the match.

Nieminen was again very calm in the tie breaker. He didn’t show any sign of nervousness and won the tie breaker comfortably to pull off the second consecutive upset.

In the quarter final, Nieminen will play against the no. 1 player in the world Novak Djokovic.