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.

American Ernesto Escobedo reached his first ATP Challenger Tour final last week in Sao Paulo, but the teenager proved he has the tools to ensure it likely won’t be his last.

Standing at 6’1” and with a highly aggressive baseline game, one might assume that Escobedo’s style of play wouldn’t translate to slow clay courts. The 19-year-old proved any doubters wrong by showing off impressively smooth movement and the ability to play defense when necessary. He weathered a marathon second-round match against No. 2 seed Joao Souza before prevailing in another three-set match in the semi-finals against last year’s finalist in Sao Paulo, No. 7 seed Christian Lindell.

Although he lost in the championship match on Sunday to Gonzalo Lama, he became the seventh different American teenager – and 10th in total – to reach an ATP Challenger Tour final since last October.

“I never expected that this tournament would be my first ATP Challenger Tour final,” said Escobedo. “I was playing really aggressive and, to be honest, that’s my game. That result gives me a lot of confidence and now I feel like I can play more freely.”

Although Escobedo grew up in California hard courts and feels most at home on them, he believes he has the ability to enjoy success on all surfaces in the years to come.

“I’ve always thought I could be a really good clay-courter. I’m just not as used to the surface,” said Escobedo. “Americans can play on clay. It’s just a stereotype that we don’t know how to.”

With a new career-high Emirates ATP Ranking of No. 260, Escobedo said he will move on from Futures tournaments and focus primarily on the ATP Challenger Tour as he continues to build his game.

“It’s been such a great experience being on tour,” said Escobedo. “It’s been very important for me because I feel that I can play my game against good players and get good results. Hopefully I can keep improving my game”

It took four years for the potential to be realised. From 1999-2002, Roger Federer’s ability was clearly evident, but he was still perfecting his ruthlessly efficient patterns of play. And then is 2003, the Swiss took it to another level.

Federer exploded in 2003 with his first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon. He defeated Andy Roddick 7-6(6), 6-3, 6-3 in the semi-finals and took out Mark Philippoussis 7-6(5), 6-2, 7-6(3) in the final. It was game on for Federer, and game over for pretty much everyone else.

Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt were early yardsticks for Federer. The four years of Federer’s pro apprenticeship from 1999-2002 and the four years after, 2003-06, clearly show defined improvement against Roddick and Hewitt.

Federer had a lopsided losing record (2-5) against Hewitt in the earlier years, but once he flicked the switch in 2003, the next four years yielded a 9-1 record for the Swiss. Federer is 21-3 lifetime against Roddick, pretty much always having his measure.

An Infosys ATP Beyond the Numbers analysis of Federer against Roddick and Hewitt in the four years before 2003 and the four years following provides an insightful look at Federer’s rise.

Roger Federer vs. Andy Roddick / Lleyton Hewitt

Federer’s Super Serve

Against Roddick and Hewitt, Federer bumped his average ace tally from 7.4 in 1999-2002 to 11.3 in 2003-2006. As Federer got better at painting the lines, he also got better at not missing the box on his second delivery. His double faults dropped from an average of 2.7 per match to just 1.8 during the second four-year segment.

Overall in 2002, Federer averaged 2.6 aces for every double fault he hit. By 2006, that had been dialed up to 5.4 aces per double fault.

Federer’s serve has always been the rock he’s relied upon to get out of a jam and finish matches. From the first four-year period to the second, his serve developed into an amazing blend of hitting spots on the first serve and generally targeting the backhand jam location of his opponent on the second serve. Federer also made sure to stay clear of the dangers of the singles sideline and the centre line.

His first-serve percentage rose from 56 per cent against Roddick and Hewitt from 1999-2002, to 59 per cent from 2003-2006. Overall in 2001, Federer was making just under 60 per cent of his first serves for the season. By 2005, that number had vaulted to almost 63 per cent. Federer’s serve, more than any other shot, has carried him to many a victory over many an opponent.

Janko Tipsarevic made a triumphant return to professional tennis on Tuesday at the $50,000 ATP Challenger Tour event in Ostrava, winning his first match after a seven-month injury layoff.

In front of a packed crowd on Centre Court, the former World No. 8 needed over two-and-a-half hours to dispatch No. 6 seed Hans Podlipnik-Castillo, 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-4. Rallying from a break down in the final set, the win marked his first ATP Challenger Tour victory since Belgrade in 2010, and his first professional win since last year’s ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Madrid. 

“The conditions were tough for everyone today because there was a tremendous amount of wind, but I’m happy that I won my first match in seven months,” said Tipsarevic. “It wasn’t a pretty match, but it’s important that I won.”

Tipsarevic has been out this year with right knee patella tendonitis, with his last match coming at the US Open. He returned to the tour last April after sitting out for 18 months with persistent foot issues, specifically in his left heel, which included two surgeries to remove a benign tumor. Simply happy to be healthy now, the 31-year-old said returning to Ostrava, where he won the third ATP Challenger Tour title of his career in 2004, is an ideal way to ease his body back into the rigors of competitive tennis.

“I wanted to be here. There was a chance I could have gotten a wild card into [the ATP World Tour event in] Munich, but this tournament is smaller and I can get some matches in,” said Tipsarevic. “I wanted to test things out and I also have good memories of this tournament from the past.”

The two-time US Open quarter-finalist is keeping his expectations low in Ostrava, but is aiming to play a full schedule for the remainder of the year and get back into the upper echelon of the game in 2017.

“I’m just seeing how my body feels at this tournament because I haven’t played in seven months,” said Tipsarevic. “The goal for this year is to finish in the Top 100 so I don’t have to go through qualifying for the big events.”