Del Potro serves warning

The final match on the Hisense program featured the second Grand Slam title winner of the day Juan Martin Del Potro. Not quite as many titles as Serena (1 c/w 15) but he has the game to build on that 2009 US Open crown.

His first victim on his trail through the Aus Open draw happened to be a French qualifier Adrian Mannarino. I cannot think of a single argument in favour of Adrian doing anything other than following the lead of his fellow Frenchman Michael Llodra and taking the first round loser cheque. The difference here is the competitive nature of the match for which there would be little.

Harsh judgement indeed but justified given the first twenty or so minutes of the match. The time management skills of Del Potro were to the fore as he carved out a 6-1 set in the same amount of time it takes most of us just to change our minds.

The sixth seed refused to make a mistake and just belted first the tennis ball then his opponent into submission. His forehand is lethal and while his total of clean winners may not top the charts his opponents number of forced mistakes is enough to achieve platinum record status. Everyone is talking about the Murray/Federer semi final as though it is a lock but having seen both of their prospective quarter final opponents today, a few chickens may have been put in the total column slightly early.

Del Potro is my pick to replace Nadal in the top 4 long term should Rafa fail to return as he once was. His height if used to its max is a weapon and now clearly over his injury problems he is confident amongst the elite.

4-0 eventuated in Set 2 and every point won by Mannarino was greeted by cheers - not a great ask of the crowd since they were a rarity. The game that he won to double that count was a bit of a surprise and I had to check to see if the umpire had called it incorrectly.

I glanced at the scoreboard and to my amusement noticed that Adrian headed Juan Martin in clean winners. So much for stats telling a story.

The rallies toward the end of the set did have more to them and in fact Mannarino drew blood for the second time in the set though a little scratch hardly compared to the haemorrhaging on the other side of the net.

Del Potro safely did his duty and locked away Set 2 to dominate 6-1 6-2.

Mannarino won two more games in the third set including the first to actually lead 1-0. Del Potro corrected the silliness in an instant winning the next five. He just did not agree to committing unforced errors, and that sort of belligerence will unfortunately see Juan Martin win plenty of matches this year. He impressed with serving out the match just as he had done all match.
6-1 6-2 6-2.