Del Potro Makes Successful Clay Return

Juan Martin del Potro scored his first win on clay in nearly three years at the BMW Open by FWU AG on Wednesday. The Tandil native won 7-6(2), 6-4 against German Dustin Brown and advanced to the second round. Del Potro’s previous clay court ATP World Tour event was Rome 2013, when he fell in the third round to Benoit Paire.

“I’m very happy to win my first match in three years on clay,” del Potro said. “I was quite nervous at the end of the match and didn’t serve as well as I did early in the match. He played better in the end too. But for the conditions, we played a nice match.

“I feel better. I am starting to hit my topspin backhand, which is what I need on this surface. I am looking forward to getting even better and hitting harder on my backhand.”

The Argentine landed 71 per cent of first serves and broke serve three times in the 82-minute win. He will face Jan-Lennard Struff in his next match. The German upset seventh seed Vasek Pospisil 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-2. Del Potro last won consecutive tour-level matches on clay at Roland Garros in 2012 (l. to Federer in quarter-finals).

Third seed Dominic Thiem fired six aces in defeating Santiago Giraldo 7-5, 6-4. The Austrian saved three break points in the 93-minute second-round win and leveled the FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry with Giraldo at 1-1. The 22 year old will face Ivan Dodig, who beat sixth seed Thomaz Bellucci 7-6(5), 6-3, in the quarter-finals.

Fabio Fognini, the fifth seed and 2014 runner-up (l. to Klizan), required just 57 minutes to beat 20-year-old wild card Maximilian Marterer 6-3, 6-1  for a place in the second round.

Eighth seed Alexander Zverev, an ATP #NextGen player, saved 11 of 12 break points to knock out Malek Jaziri 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in two hours and 11 minutes in the first round.

Seeded Teams Cruise In Doubles

Second seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah defeated Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Santiago Gonzalez 6-2, 6-2 in 56 minutes to advance to the quarter-finals on Wednesday. The Colombian duo saved both break points faced and remain on track to earn their third clay-court title of the year (Rio and Buenos Aires).

Also into the final eight are third seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers, who downed German wild cards Kevin Krawietz and Maximilian Marterer 6-4, 6-2 in 53 minutes. Austrians Julian Knowle and Alexander Peya, seeded fourth, beat Germans Gero Kretschmer and Alexander Satschko 6-4, 6-3.

Day Four Preview

The BMW Open by FWU AG has been won by the likes of Roger Federer, Ivan Lendl and Guillermo Vilas, but no player has more victories in Munich than Germany’s own Philipp Kohlschreiber. The two-time champion and four-time finalist makes his 12th tournament appearance Thursday against countryman Florian Mayer. Kohlschreiber, who captured the title in 2007 and 2012, is 24-9 in Munich, ahead of Mikhail Youzhny (21-11) and Tommy Haas (20-11).

The Next Generation of German tennis precedes Kohlschreiber vs. Mayer on Center Court when 19-year-old Alexander Zverev meets Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic. Zverev is 0-3 in the FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry against Rosol, including a straight-set loss in the deciding rubber of a Davis Cup tie in March.

No. 1 seed David Goffin plays his first match of the 2016 tournament on Court 1 against Victor Estrella Burgos. Goffin is ranked a career-high No. 13 following semi-final runs at ATP Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells and Miami. But the Belgian is still seeking his first title in more than 19 months. Estrella Burgos has captured two titles in that time, both on the clay courts of Quito.