DEL POTRO CLAIMS OPENING MATCH IN ACAPULCO

Juan Martin Del Potro will now head into a second-round clash with top seed Novak Djokovic, on Tuesday night at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel after he narrowly held off Frances Tiafoe to claim his opening match in Acapulco, an event that is his second for the year.


The match which went on for about two hours and 33 minutes saw del Potro hold off the free-swinging Tiafoe 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(1). Tiafoe, 19 years old who grew up idolizing del Potro almost came close to toppling the former World No. 4 in the Emirates ATP Rankings during the match.

Del Potro, who was the semifinalist at the Delray Beach Openlast week started stronger as he broke for 5-4 in the opening set of the game. On a return error from the American qualifier’s racquet, the Argentine came up with three set points.

With a big forehand winner down the line, Tiafoe was soon able to save onebefore threading a backhand pass that saw him save a second. However, Del Potro ended up clinching the set with one of his signature running forehand winners.

The second set saw Tiafoe land his first break of the match as he ended with 2-0 in the second, and went on to level his third set point, rifling a backhand winner and ending the set down the line for 6-3.

Into the deciding set, games stayed on serve deep and Tiafoe found himself teetering close to defeat when del Potro closed to within two points of the match from 40/0 up at 4-5. Once again, Tiafoe found himself two points from defeat on serve at 5-6 before going on to force the tie-break.

With back-to-back off-forehand winners, the Argentine catapulted to 3/1, bringing up five match points when Tiafoe rolled out a crosscourt forehand well wide.