It was like dêjà vu for Juan Martin del Potro at Roland Garros on Thursday. For the second time in three days, he was competing in front of an energetic Parisian crowd that was cheering on a home favourite. There was something else that remained the same: Del Potro came out on top.
The No. 5 seed moved past Julien Benneteau to advance to the third round on the terre battue for the second consecutive year. Previously, the Argentine had not competed at the French Grand Slam since 2012.
The victory gives Del Potro his 25th match triumph of the season (25-6), and his win-rate of 80.6 per cent in 2018 is third-best on the ATP World Tour behind just Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer according to the FedEx ATP Performanze Zone. The 29-year-old’s first-round win against Nicolas Mahut made him just the third Argentine to earn 80 Grand Slam match wins (Guillermo Vilas (139) and David Nalbandian (86)).
Del Potro returned to the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings on 15 January for the first time since August 2014 after reaching the Auckland final, and his season has only gotten better. The 'Tower of Tandil' captured his maiden ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown at the BNP Paribas Open, ending Federer's 17-0 start to the season. And now, he is looking to make his best run yet at the clay-court Slam — Del Potro reached the semi-finals in 2009.
After beating Benneteau in the Frenchman's final Roland Garros, Del Potro moves on to face 2017 Monte-Carlo finalist Alberto Ramos-Vinolas, who ousted #NextGenATP Norwegian Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-2, 6-4. The Spaniard arrived in Paris with a 15-15 record on the season, and with just one Round of 16 showing at the three clay-court Masters 1000 events.
Did You Know?
Del Potro is now 9-0 against opponents competing at their home Grand Slam. He is 6-0 against Frenchmen at Roland Garros (2-0 this year) and 3-0 against Americans at the US Open.
from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/2LOBAXs
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