Del Potro recovers after blip

A bizarre second set was the major blemish for men’s fourth seed Juan Martin del Potro as he advanced through to the fourth round of Australian Open 2010.

The Argentine, who had already spent nearly seven-and-a-half hours on court prior to his third round match, overcame Germany’s Florian Mayer 6-3 0-6 6-4 7-5 at Rod Laver Arena on Friday.

Coming off a four-set opening round win and Wednesday’s narrow five-set victory over American James Blake, del Potro would have been hoping for a slightly easier passage through to the fourth round – but Mayer’s stubborn resistance again revealed some vulnerabilities in the Argentine’s game.

Del Potro started the match strongly, and after breaking Mayer’s serve twice, he looked to be running away with the first set as he led the world No. 60 5-1. Mayer defended two set points and broke back, but the effort was to no avail as del Potro held tough on his following service game.

The second set swung in favour of the German, who looked to be changing the course of the match. Mayer produced only three unforced errors in the set as he broke del Potro’s serve at every opportunity and leveled the score with a 6-0 win in just 28 minutes. The Argentine had his opportunities to halt his progress, but missed all five break points he created.

Unfortunately for Mayer, in the context of the result, the second set turned out to be nothing more than an aberration.

Del Potro fought his way back in the third set as he picked up his first serve percentage.

The world No. 4 broke Mayer in the fifth game of the set and did not relinquish that advantage, as he dished up five aces in the set and hit 13 winners to claim it 6-4.

The fourth set was again tightly contested, with a Mayer break mid-way through the set looking like it could drive the match into a fifth.

However, del Potro responded immediately, breaking back and eventually rounding out the set 7-5 to progress to round four and a match-up with Marin Cilic or Stanislas Wawrinka.

The result was del Potro’s second victory over Mayer. The pair had met on two previous occasions, most recently in the second round of the Australian Open last year, where del Potro defeated the German in straight sets.

Current Match on Rod Laver Arena Rod Laver Arena - Men's Singles - 3rd Round Florian Mayer GER 3 6 4 5 Juan Martin Del Potro ARG (4) 6 0 6 7 Match Statistics Serve Statistics