del Potro Into Citi Open Quarterfinals After Wins Over Tomic and Harrison
Juan Martin del Potro advanced to the 2013 Citi Open quarterfinals in Washington, D.C. on Thursday after winning twice over the course of seven-and-a-half-hours. He first defeated 107th-ranked Ryan Harrison 6-1, 7-5, and then beat 14th-seeded Bernard Tomic 6-3, 6-3. They played for about 70 minutes in each match.
Harrison was trailing 4-0 after only 11 minutes. He smashed his racket after hitting a forehand long to get broken at 3-0. Harrison dropped 13 points in a row, but played evenly against del Potro until the last game.
Del Potro also won the titles at the hard-court tournament in Washington in 2008 and 2009. He has not competed since July 5, after being eliminated by world number one Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon semifinals. Del Potro will next play the number-seed Kevin Anderson who beat James Duckworth 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, then defeated Mardy Fish 7-6(2), 6-1. An announcement indicating Fish’s withdrawal from the tournament next week in Montreal was made before that match was over. He claimed personal reasons for his withdrawal.
In other quarterfinal play, John Isner will face Marcos Baghdatis, Grigor Dimitrov will challenge either Tommy Haas or Ivan Dodig, and Marinko Matosevic will play Dmitry Tursunov. Matosevic defeated Milos Raonic 7-5, 7-6(7), and Baghdatis defeated Kei Nishikoric, 6-1, 6-2.
In women’s singles action, Madison Keys lost to Monica Niculescu, 6-1, 2-6, 7-6(6). The matches in the women’s quarterfinals are Angelique Kerber vs. Magdalena Rybarikova, Ekaterina Makarova vs. Niculescu, Alize Cornet vs. Sorana Cirstea, and Andrea Petkovic vs. Paula Ormaechea.
