Gabriela Sabatini’s compatriot, Juan Martin Del Potro, has been defeated by Tobias Kamke of Germany in the second round of the Sony Open on Saturday. Kamke won the match in the straight sets by 7-6(5), 6-1.
This was a huge upset. Del Potro had come into this tournament with some form. In the recently played BNP Paribas Open, he had defeated the no. 1 player in the world Novak Djokovic in the semi finals. Also, his world ranking is much higher than Kamke. So, not many people would have expected him to suffer a straight set defeat against a relatively lesser experienced German player. But, it happened. Kamke stunned Del Potro with his ruthless approach.
In the first five games of the opening set, there were no breakthroughs. Del Potro broke in the 6th game and then, held his serve in the 7th game to make the score 5-2 in his favour.
By serving out the eighth game, Kamke decreased the lead to 3-5. Del Potro was serving for the set in the 9th game, but, Kamke didn’t let him serve it out. With a break of serve, he ensured that the set would go further. A serve hold for Kamke in the 10th game levelled the scores.
Both the players held their serve in the next two games which extended the set into the tie breaker. Kamke continued playing with aggression in the tie breaker as well and won it to grab the set.
In the second set, Del Potro performed poorly on his serve and dropped his serve a couple of times consecutively. As a result of that, Kamke took a lead of 5-0. The Argentinean won his third service game in the set to make it 5-1, but, that was too little to change the course of the match. Kamke served out the 7th game and secured a huge win.
Kamke’s next opponent will be Jurgen Melzer of Austria.