Juan Martin Del Potro will be back in action on Wednesday for the second match of his comeback tournament as he battles Sydney No. 1 seed Fabio Fognini. David Goffin and Simone Bolelli are also part of a jam-packed schedule.
(1) Fabio Fognini vs. (WC) Juan Martin Del Potro
Del Potro’s comeback match after 10 months away from tennis was a positively ideal one at the Apia International on Tuesday. The Argentine, who had been sidelined due to wrist surgery, defeated Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-3, 7-6(4) without facing a single break point in the process. Del Potro has to be feeling sky-high emotionally and he sounded as if he felt good physically, too, afterward.
That is bad news for Fognini, who is going up against Del Potro for the first time ever at the ATP main-draw level on Wednesday. Their only completed meeting (two encounters ended in retirement) came 10 years ago on the clay courts of the Motevideo Challenger, where Del Potro cruised in straight sets. Fognini looked disinterested throughout much of 2014 and he was a disaster at the recent Hopman Cup, going 0-3 against John Isner, Vasek Pospisil, and Adam Pavlasek. Having to play Del Potro in his opening match this week will not ease the top-seeded Italian’s mind.
Pick: Del Potro in 2
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Simone Bolelli vs. (2) David Goffin
Goffin’s 2015 campaign did not get off to the same kind of hot streak that he put on display last summer and fall, but only Stan Wawrinka can be blamed for that. The 22nd-ranked Belgian at least reached the semifinals in Chennai and he played a high-quality match against Wawrinka despite losing to the eventual champion 6-3, 6-4.
Following a first-round bye in Sydney as the No. 2 seed, Goffin will face Bolelli for the first time on Wednesday. Bolelli advanced with a 6-3, 6-2 rout of Marinko Matosevic on Monday. The 51st-ranked Italian, who enjoyed an injury-free and resurgent 2014, is coming off a second-round performance in Doha (beat Benjamin Becker, lost to Richard Gasquet). In his current form, the only real way to beat Goffin is to blow him off the court. Bolelli has some firepower with his one-handed backhand, but not to the extent that he will be able to do it.
Pick: Goffin in 2
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Juan!!!!!!!!!!!!
“The former fourth-ranked player from Argentina needed a wild-card entry to get into the main draw because his world ranking had dropped to 338 during his lengthy absence.”
http://espn.go.com/tennis/story/_/id/12165064/juan-martin-del-potro-ousts-fabio-fognini-reach-quarterfinals
Why would Del Potro need a WC? Doesn’t he get entry protection for direct entry? Under the rules, he can lose his seeding but I understood that he gets direct entry. No WC should be needed.
“The Entry Protection shall be in effect for either the first nine tournaments that the player competes in using the Entry Protection (excluding wild cards and entries as a Direct Acceptance with his current position in the Emirates ATP Rankings) or for the period up to nine months beginning with the first tennis event that the player competes in, whichever occurs first.”
So he was probably able to negotiate a WC so as not to use one of his nine allowed protected events.
Regardless, the article should not state that he “needed” a WC to enter as that is not accurate.
Maybe he applied to play after they’d closed the list. Fed got a WC into a tourney recently.
Yes could be that.
But then his ranking/injury would not be the reason as the article implies.
The article is just not accurate with it’s statement.