Del Potro Focused On Improvement, Faces Hewitt Next

© Ron AngleJuan Martin del Potro is through to his first quarter-final since November 2009.

Juan Martin del Potro set up a quarter-final clash with childhood idol Lleyton Hewitt after defeating Slovakian Lukas Lacko 6-1, 7-6(1) on Thursday at the SAP Open. Hewitt, a past San Jose champion, rallied past Argentine Brian Dabul 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 earlier in the day.

Del Potro advanced to his first ATP World Tour quarter-final since his comeback from a wrist injury, clinching the win in one hour and 39 minutes after saving two set points down 4-5 in the second set.

The match was temporarily halted for 10 minutes in the first set after del Potro’s serve caused the clip at the middle of the net to snap off. The Argentine joked afterwards, “I’m serving very strong, that’s the reason.” 

The former World No. 4 is through to the quarter-finals or better for the first time reaching the final at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in November 2009, but admitted he wasn’t back to full strength yet.

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“Every morning when I wake up I feel very different sensations with my body, with my mind, but I’m happy to be in the tournament again since a year out,” said del Potro, who was limited to four tournaments during the 2010 season. “I’m improving my game slowly, but I’m still improving, so that’s important for the future, for the season too.

“I don't know if I'll be Top 10 again, but I'm working to get as good as I can. My wrist is getting better day by day.”

He said of his step-by-step progress: “I’m not looking [to win] tournaments, [though] of course I would like it. If I can improve match by match, my game, it’s important. I have another opportunity to play a match tomorrow against one of the best players of history. He’s one of my idols, so that moment again is going to be good for me.”

It will be the first time since 2003, when Andre Agassi played Michael Chang, that two Grand Slam champions will meet at this ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament. Del Potro, 22, won the US Open title in 2009, while the 29-year-old Hewitt won the US Open in 2001 and Wimbledon in 2002.

The pair split their previous two meetings in 2009, with Hewitt winning in straight sets at Wimbledon and del Potro in a third-set tie-break at Washington.

Hewitt, who won the San Jose title in 2002 (d. Agassi) and reached the final on his next visit in 2006 (l. to Murray), said of the young Argentine: “He’s a quality player and he’s obviously on the comeback from injury, so he hasn’t played the most amount of tennis. But if he gets up, then it’s going to be tough match.”

Former World No. 1 Hewitt fought off four break points in the third set of his second-round match against 106th-ranked Dabul and took the decisive break to go up 5-3.

“He was playing well. He wasn’t giving me any cheap points early on, so it was a matter of hanging in there and trying to find a way to get myself back in the match,” said Hewitt. “I just tried to cut out some of the cheap errors I was making. I was trying to go for it early on and just wasn’t feeling the ball out there today, so I just went back to just grinding it out and I was able to turn the match around.”