We should have known from the start, the very start, that it was going to be a touchy, as well as sweaty, day for Juan Martin del Potro. On the first point of his match with Mardy Fish this morning, Fish hit a forehand winner that landed on the sideline. Del Potro slowly ambled over and gave the spot a long and skeptical look. So far in his comeback, the big guy has shown that he can still knock off a forehand and win a tennis match or two. Now he’s shown that he hasn't forgotten how to take his sweet time getting around to deciding whether to challenge a line call.
Del Potro also reminded us of one other trait of his today: His occasional moodiness, which he can let get to him. This time his mood darkened near the end of the first set, when he was the victim of a bad line call. Soon after, serving at 4-5 and still miffed, he quickly fell behind 0-40. But testiness can work in different ways. With nothing to lose, del Potro belted his way out of trouble. The same thing almost happened in his next service game, at 5-6. Again Fish had set points, again a morose del Potro bashed his way back. This time, though, luck was on Fish’s side. With one more set point left, he hit a nervous backhand that clipped the tape and fell over on del Potro’s side. TV cameras didn’t catch del Potro’s reaction, but I can only guess the shot didn't make him any more cheerful.
This was a very long—more than 2 hours for two sets—very hot, and very choppy match. It was played primarily from the baseline, where each player tried to use his forehand to back the other up. Fish was the better player on the day: He used his kick serve well, was effective with his inside-out forehand, and wasn’t pushed around by the bigger and more powerful del Potro. The Argentine struggled in particular with forehand unforced errors—he committed a costly one to go down 0-3 in the second-set tiebreaker. But again it was a little bit of luck that saw the American through in the end, 7-5, 7-6 (5). Hobbled by a calf cramp at 6-3 in the tiebreaker, he went for broke and missed two returns to make the score 6-5. But del Potro couldn’t take advantage. He did the only thing he didn’t want to do on the next point, floating a very makeable return of serve long and giving Fish the match before he had to take another shaky step.
—Steve Tignor