Former world nr.4 Juan Martin Del Potro won a very tight match in Sydney by 6-7 (5) 7-6 (9) 7-6 (3) in 3 hours and 20 minutes.
The Argentinian managed to save a match point in the second set during a very long a tight tie break and then managed to win a very harsh third set. Both players had a remarkable displayed a remarkable serve firing a total of 41 aces (21 Del Potro and 20 Lopez).
Del Potro will meet in the second round Florian Mayer.
‘I don’t expect this kind of match for the start, but we played a beautiful match, very close,’ commented del Potro. ‘Feliciano is a fantastic player on this kind of surface and I played good tennis again. I feel good all on my match and finally I won a match since one year.’
Del Potro is now ranked in the 200s and he feels 100% confident he will be back in the top ten.