Glossing over grass: Raonic, Janowicz discover strife; Querrey, Del Potro court victory
uan Martin Del Potro of Argentina (L) shakes hands with Xavier Malisse of Belgium after victory during the Men’s Singles second round match on day two of the AEGON Championships at Queens Club on June 11, 2013 in London, England. (Getty Images)
Year after year, the tour slips into an aesthetic pursuit around lush green meadows for a very brief hiatus to the grass courts in England. It is a period on the calendar when tennis suddenly seems poignant; a romantic interlude between dancing on the dust bowls of Europe and working around the hard courts of Asia and America. As we lead up to the Championships in London, we shall keep you interested with daily updates on all the action from the green gardens.
Aegon Championships
With Andy Murray not in action till Wednesday, the focus was firmly upon Juan Martin Del Potro. Both men are plotting their return this week from injury after missing the French Open. The Argentine was far from convincing on his return even though he edged out Xavier Malisse with a gritty effort in the see-saw third set to reach the round of 16 of the Aegon Championships.
It took well over two hours for Del Potro to eke out a 7-6 (5), 1-6, 7-5 victory over the Belgian, who reached the semis at Wimbledon in 2002. In the early stages, it was Malisse who looked and played like the winner, effortlessly transitioning between baseline and net with great success. Del Potro saved the only break point of the set in the fifth game and soon the set slipped into a breaker.
Malisse lost a mini-break early to fall behind at 1-4, but won three points in a row to get even with his towering opponent. The Belgian dropped serve again to offer set point to Del Potro at 6-5 and the Argentine sealed it with glee on his own serve. Far from being deflated, Malisse marched purposefully to take a 5-0 lead in the second set. It took just 26 minutes to wrap up the set and force a decider.
When Malisse squeezed out a break in the very first game of the final set to take a 3-1 lead, Del Potro seemed destined for an early exit. But a couple of thundering forehand winners brought the Argentine right back in the mix at 3-3. Del Potro undid the good work when he gifted another break in the next game, but consecutive net cords bailed out the Argentine to keep the set tied at 4-4.
Even though Malisse played a brilliant game to stay in the match with a hold to 5-5, he lost his moorings in the twelfth game. The Belgian made three unforced errors to offer match points to the Argentine. A return winner that zipped past the rushing Belgian put a lid on the testy encounter for Del Potro, who escaped to battle another day.
Meanwhile, Sam Querrey also laboured to a two and a half hour victory over Aljaz Bedene in a match that took nearly six hours to complete for repeated rain interruptions. The 78th ranked Slovenian was impressive in only his second match on grass, facing just a single break point through the entire match.
Querrey somehow prevailed in the end, saving a match point in the process to take a hard earned 7-6 (11), 5-7, 7-6 (5) victory. The American, who won this title in 2010, recorded his 200th career win to reach the third round.
Lukas Rosol, who gained his fame by defeating Rafael Nadal in the second round of Wimbledon last year, lost the first set to Australian Samuel Groth but recovered quickly to reach the second round. His opponent in the next round, Benjamin Becker, also needed three sets to advance at the expense of the erratic Bernard Tomic.
Gerry Weber Open
Jerzy Janowicz succumbed to a three set defeat to 240th ranked Mirza Basic. (Getty Images)
Milos Raonic and Jerzy Janowicz were united in strife as they suffered shock defeats in their first outings of the season on grass. The Canadian was ousted by an inspired performance from former top ten player Gael Monfils. But the Pole – who shot to fame with an impressive run at the Paris Masters – was the bigger shock of the day as he stumbled to a defeat at the hands of a debutant.
The seventh seed succumbed to an unseemly three set defeat to a man who needs an introduction even to the most ardent followers of the tour. Hailing from Bosnia and Herzegovina and ranked 240th Mirza Basic was a late replacement for Philipp Petzschner at eh Gerry Weber Open. He took just over two hours to record an impressive 7-6 (5), 3-6, 7-6 (5) victory over Janowicz.
Monfils, fresh off a third round showing in Paris, was in irresistible form. The Frenchman struck some blistering returns to break Raonic three times and take a comfortable 6-4, 6-2 victory to march ahead into the second round of the event in Halle. Ernests Gulbis earned a shot at defending champion Tommy Haas, with a three set victory over Marcos Baghdatis. The Latvian, playing for the first time in Halle, needed an hour and 40 minutes for his 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 victory.
Wednesday will see both the tournaments kick into top gear with matches scheduled for Andy Murray, Roger Federer, Tomas Berdych and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga all in action. While Federer takes on local wild card Cedrik-Marcel Stebe in Halle, the remaining three men will be seen in action in London at the Queen’s Club.