Juan Martin del Potro continued his impressive week at the Abierto Mexicano TELCEL on Friday night, defeating Alexander Zverev, 6-4 6-2, to reach the final at the ATP
World Tour 500-level event.
1. He didn’t drop serve once. Del Potro not only held all nine of his service games, he was barely even in trouble on his serve - he only faced one break point the whole match. Meanwhile he broke Zverev three times, in the third game of the first set then the third and seventh games of the second set. The Argentine blasted his fifth ace of the match to close out the one-hour, 31-minute victory.
2. That was his second Top 10 win of the week. Del Potro beat No. 6-ranked Dominic Thiem in the quarters and now No. 5-ranked Zverev in the semis - No. 8-ranked Kevin Anderson awaits in the final.
This is the first time del Potro’s beaten two Top 10 players at the same tournament since the US Open last year (there he beat Thiem in the fourth round and Roger Federer in the quarterfinals).
If he can beat Anderson on Saturday, it’ll be just the second time in his career that he’s beaten three Top 10 players at the same tournament - he did it once before at the ATP World Tour Finals in 2009 (Federer and Fernando Verdasco in the round robin and then Robin Soderling in the semifinals).
3. Del Potro has never lost to Anderson. They’ve played against each other six times before and del Potro has won every time - all six of their previous meetings have come on hardcourts, too. Also, del Potro won all three of their meetings on outdoor hardcourts in straight sets, most recently a 6-4 6-4 win in the first round of Delray Beach a year ago. Will Anderson make it seventh-time lucky?
