Del Potro Overcomes Mahut, French Faithful

For a half hour on Tuesday at Roland Garros, 36-year-old Nicolas Mahut turned back time. The French wild card was dominating fifth seed Juan Martin del Potro, drop shotting the 6’6” Argentine and serving and volleying as if he was on the The Queen’s Club grass.

Twenty-five minutes into their first-round match, Mahut led 6-1 and had the French crowd on Court Suzanne-Lenglen eager for more. But the party soon ended.

Del Potro, perhaps nervous about testing his injured groin, eventually settled his game and started to solve Mahut’s serve-and-volley style. The Argentine sprinted through the second set in 31 minutes, and repeated the act two more times to advance 1-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.

“I know he starts very slow, and it’s not as though if I play from the baseline that I’m going to win. So I had to play at the front part of the court as much as possible. I played well. I broke, and I served well,” Mahut said of the beginning of the first-round contest. “But the more the match was going on, the more I understood that he was really regaining all of his potential.”

Del Potro broke twice in the third and once more in the fourth, smacking a forehand behind Mahut for a 4-2 advantage. “I didn’t play my best tennis basically at the beginning of the match, but then I felt a little better,” Del Potro said. “I had a lot of doubts in the beginning, and luckily I got over that. I felt much more comfortable on the clay surface and in the game.”

His status for Roland Garros was unclear after he retired from his third-round match against David Goffin because of a groin injury at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome on 17 May.

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He left Rome, saying he’d undergo health exams. But the 2009 semi-finalist didn’t seem bothered by it against Mahut, who tested it often with his crafty touch.

“Thanks to the very good professionals that’s around me, I was able to play,” Del Potro said. “The doctor gave me some ten days, we respected this pause of ten days, and now I’m back.”

He will next meet Frenchman Julien Benneteau or countryman Leonardo Mayer. Their match was suspended Tuesday night with Mayer leading 6-2, 4-3.

Swede Elias Ymer earned his first Grand Slam victory on his sixth try, beating Israeli Dudi Sela 7-6(3), 6-3, 6-1. Ymer, who is coached by two-time Roland Garros finalist Robin Soderling, won exactly half of his return points (54/108), and will next face 18th seed Fabio Fognini. Italy’s No. 1 beat Marrakech champion Pablo Andujar of Spain 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 in less than two hours.

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In Rome, Fognini was a set away from becoming the fourth man to beat Nadal at least three times on clay (Novak Djokovic, 7; Dominic Thiem, 3; Gaston Gaudio, 3).

Did You Know?
Del Potro has never lost to a player at his home Grand Slam. He is 5-0 against Frenchmen at Roland Garros and 3-0 against Americans at the US Open. He has never played against an Australian at the Australian Open or a Brit at Wimbledon.