You sit there on Stadium Court in the blazing Florida sunshine wondering if a tennis ball ever has been hit harder. Juan Martin del Potro, at 6-feet-6, and Robin Soderling, at 6-4, are big men, and both have windups on their forehand side that send a tennis ball across the net like a ballistic missile.
With the crowd – liberally sprinkled with Argentine fans, many decked out in their country’s blue-and-white-striped soccer jerseys – backing del Potro, the atmosphere was electric, with great gasps and screams erupting at the end of every power-driven point. The South Americans were ecstatic at the end, too, because it was del Potro who made the current rankings look a little silly with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Soderling in the third round of the Sony Ericsson Open.
Of course, the ATP rankings have not caught up with the fact that del Potro, the 2009 U.S. Open champion and former world No. 5, is returning from almost a year’s absence because of wrist surgery. He has gotten back to No. 51 and is rising fast. Soderling and Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic are the only men to have won three titles this year, but the Swede was never able to show why he has climbed, deservedly, to No. 4 in the world as he tried to deal with del Potro’s massive serves and raking groundstrokes.
Some of the rallies showed both men at their best, with the ball travelling low over the net at incredible speeds, but it was del Potro who kept coming up with the decisive punch – like the stunning forehand on the run that flashed down the line on set point in the first set.
“I feel good, I play really good match,” said the quietly spoken Argentine, who is not given to hyperbole. “Today my serve works incredible, my forehand works, my backhand, everything.”
It was true, and it was all too much for Soderling. Performances like this suggest that del Potro will be rejoining the top 10 in the very near future.
Mardy Fish scored an early mark for the United States with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Richard Gasquet and now will have to work out how to deal with all that del Potro power. He will need to do more than just neutralize a shot, which is what he tried to do with great success against the Frenchman’s fine backhand, but at least the Florida native is feeling well again after thyroid problems.
“I’ve done my fair share of blood work over the past couple of months, and I was very lucky that I didn’t go very far down hypo-wise,” he said before trying to keep a straight face as he explained the difference between hypo (underactive thyroid) and hyper (overactive thyroid) in medical terms. “Yeah, I was lucky I didn’t go as far as hypo as I was hyper. I think it’s pretty common to get hypo – you can just take medication for that. You can’t take medication for hyper.”
But you can go crazy trying to explain it.
Novak Djokovic, clearly the man of the season so far, completed the day’s play with a predictably straightforward victory over James Blake, 6-2, 6-0 in just 52 minutes.
Djokovic has won all three tournaments he has entered in 2011 and, if you include his Davis Cup heroics at the end of last year, has won 22 straight matches. Blake, the former U.S. Davis Cup stalwart who is attempting to regain some of his old prowess from a ranking position of No. 173, hit a few big winners but never was remotely capable of matching the Serb’s searing consistency from the backcourt.
With Andy Roddick departed and ailing with an apparent recurrence of his chest infection, it was good to see John Isner looking healthy and confident again as he served his way past Alex Bogomolov Jr. 6-2, 7-6 (4). Bogomolov might have upset Andy Murray in the previous round, but his fine service returns were stretched to the breaking point by Isner’s deliveries, detonated from somewhere above the player’s 6-9 height.
Sam Querrey could not make it a trio of American victories when he relinquished a break midway through the third set and went down 7-6 (5), 3-6, 7-5 to Victor Troicki, whose game and confidence continue to grow after his starring role in Serbia’s Davis Cup triumph over France in December.
Kim Clijsters admitted that she is still worrying about her serving shoulder but was delighted that it did not trouble her too much as she came through a hard-fought, third-round encounter against tall, left-handed Spaniard Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
Asked about the shoulder, Clijsters said, “Yeah, compared to Indian Wells, obviously I’m relieved that it is getting better because I was really worried there. I am focusing a lot of time and attention on my shoulder, but I know if I can do that it will stay stable.”
Clijsters will only push the tender joint so far and will not jeopardize her chances of claiming one of the two Grand Slams she has yet to win – the French Open and Wimbledon. But so far so good. She will face Ana Ivanovic, who has won the French title, in the fourth round.
