Del Potro loses on return
Former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro lost his comeback match against Olivier Rochus in the first round of ATP Bangkok.
The Argentine - who has not played an ATP Tour match since the Australian Open in January - put up a solid fight in the opening set, saving two break points before losing in a tie break.
He broke the Belgian's serve in the second set, but lost his own serve twice to go down 7-6(7) 6-4 after a rusty performance peppered with unforced errors.
Del Potro, who won the 2009 US Open, has suffered with a persistent wrist injury that has wrecked his season and forced him to go under the knife in May.
The Argentine has come to Asia in a bid to regain his form ahead of the Shanghai Masters starting on October 10.
In other first-round matches, German Rainer Schuettler beat Brazil's Ricardo Mello 6-4 6-2 and Finn Jarkko Nieminen beat home favourite Danai Udomchoke 6-3 6-2.
Seeded players with byes into the second round of the $551,000 event in Bangkok are world number one Rafa Nadal and fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, Austrian Juergen Melzer and Latvian Ernests Gulbis.
Comment 10 - 29 of 29
I think the media and journalists and everybody have been very good to Federer. Can anybody still remember when Delpo won his US open, during the prize presentation ceremoney, when Delpo requested to say something in Spainish to thank his fans, this mc old man refused to hand Delpo the mic, saying run out of time. But before that Federer was allowed to talk for minutes in his thank you speech. Poor Delpo boy!!! He is the champion and they don't allow him to thank his fans in his native language. I will root for Delpo, hope he will come back stronger and win more slams. Vamos Delpo!!!
At the end of the day it is a true statement though what con is saying this is an article about del potro returning from injury nothing to do with nadal or federer. I am a Nadal fan but sorry imran credit where it is due del potro beat nadal in the build up to us open and then again in semis quite comfortable 6-2 6-2 6-2 in my opinion yes nadal was injured and maybe a fully fit one hundred percent nadal may have managed five sets but think he would have gone down as did fed in the final. Although that was then this is now and I think, Nadal has made massive improvements and although I wouldnt say it would be easy I think Nadal would have beaten Del potro if they had met in the Us open this time round as Nadal is working harder on his weaker areas to adapt better at playing on hardcourts. However as a Nadal fan I would disagree with eddie and hope the next time fed and nadal meet nadals new game blows fed away and helps Nadal to a good win over his rival. As for fed not saying he is a spent force just in his opinion a bad year at the slams as he only won one title but in the end a bad year for others is no titles let alone slams. Del potro is not a spent force and will probably at moment just look to make adjustments and preperations for next years tournaments and where he can find room to improve his game also and get back to top ten at least if not number one definalty potential for number two or three by end of next year as most tournaments are hard courts. The only thing that annoys me about the whole Fed thing and will get this out there was when Fed won his career slam agassi came out to present him with the trophy shame that no one could do the same when nadal won his just goes to show how many people give a @#$% about nadal really doesnt it. The only thing I hope now for nadal is one more french if nothing else next year to equal borgs record of six and then he truly has nothing left to prove in my opinion Vamos rafa !!!!
bravo mercurydevil109..finally there is a guy who brilliantly put his comment wisely..as said Imran you r the who is overrated..as per mcd109 I also respect Nadal and like his game very much..your comment Imran is totally blinded by your obsessed of love on Nadal not on the bright side of the sport itself..you are looking at Nadal like he is the goddess of tennis..remembe..Del Potro has already proven himself by winning GS and also advance to at least the last 8 of some GS..dont underestimate other players just bcoz your IDOL won 3 GS this year..there are a few other players out there who has the package of winning a GS..just be careful of what u wrote coz later if ur IDOL lost it will be even harder 4 u 2 take than ur IDOL himself..
Imran, I think you are Nadal obsessed and I don't think you know anything about tennis. You just like or love Nadal. Delpo is definitely not over-rated and many commentators think he has the potential to be no. 1 in the future. You keep on saying he is over-rated and asking people why keep talking about his return is just because you are scared that he will beat Nadal one day.(in fact Delpo has beaten Nadal a few times) Sometimes you can't say Nadal lost because he's not fit, a lost is a lost, maybe Nadal's opponent is also not very fit on that day but still beat Nadal? Please be sensible. I myself also like Nadal but I'm not like you, I don't support a player blindly.
CON: Thank you for your comment #28. I hope MANY WILL SEE AND READ IT. If the subject matter is not about Nadal or Federer very few read and comment on it. Comments on this article is about Del Potro, that's why many don't comment on it unless you insert something about Nadal or Federer which could be disputed by fans of Nadal or Federer depending on whether they like what you say or not even if what you say is based on undisputed records. I copied, repeated and show below what you said for OTHERS TO READ:
"URGENT....URGENT....URGENT....
In the coming days, DO NOT open any message with an attachment called: BLACK MUSLIM IN THE WHITE HOUSE, regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus that opens an Olympics torch that burns the whole hard disk C of your computer. This virus comes from a known person who you have in your list.
Directions: You should send this message to all of your contacts. It is better to receive this e-mail 25 times than to receive the virus and open it. If you receive a message called BLACK MUSLIM IN THE WHITE HOUSE even if sent by a friend, do not open, and shut down your machine immediately. It is the worst virus announced by CNN. This new virus has been discovered recently it has been classified by Microsoft as the virus most destructive ever. This virus was discovered yesterday afternoon by McAfee.. There is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the hard disk, where vital information function"
Again thank you Con. You are a treasure with a kind heart unlike other posters that bad mouth and attack others because they could not win an argument.
IMRAN or imRAT... del potro is better than murray and a lot of guys in the turnaments...he won a grand slam ...againts federer...i'll give him that....
imrat your a @#$%
Del potro is highly overrated player and dont understand what is all the fuss about his return. He will fade away and was a one tournament wonder. Those guys who think that he could ve defeated Nadal had he been fit in the us open is living in a fools paradise. Fit Nadal cannot be defeated even by the likes of Federer, Djokovic and Murray let alone Del potro.
OMAR: Assuming the guy is right he should say what he wanted to say NICELY. It is his way of saying things that I don't like. I know you Omar. I know you don't skip my comments otherwise you won't notice my comments. I know you are a Federer fan. I am both a Nadal/Federer fan but I am fair on my comments. On that kid's comment he got a lot of thumbdowns and what does that mean? I hope Fed beats Nad several times next year so he can stand alone as the greatest player of all times. I don't have any objection on who become the greatest as I'll be happy on either one.
Hey Eddie, don't be so upset, the guy is right. You are redundant and say nothing new, and i skip your comments for the sake of time. And it's dishonest to describe you're ill-conceived opinions as facts. Enjoy your day!
Tennismaniac Kid: Watch your tongue! your bad mouth! You don't deserve to post here. You are exposing yourself as a loser. Repeating some things is for emphasis, also for people who refused to accept facts. You can get your points across if you are nice as it is nice to be nice. Be a good boy kid!
What is humorous is that players' success is defined by beating Federer? Huh, Del Potro is back good for him! I do not think he was thinking about beating Federer or Nadal!~ IT WAS FIRST TOURNAMENT BACK! Talk about Sharapova losing to Date Krumm! lol
Marcos sure showed Nishikori !!!
Juan don't worry you'll be on track soon. Wish u all best. It is not simple to return after many months being absent.
Well had to be expected really. On the plus side he was wearing some good shoes.
Coolworld: Thanks for that, but I'm off for a while, after having 2 of my last 3 posts pulled, they didn't even print my response to issues made tp my 1st post. Come to think of it you probably won't get to read this either.
to be honest i ait botherd bout him losing.. im glad he's back on tour.. looking forward to him next season :D
Don't read into it, its only the first match.........
@Redskin, on Tue 28 Sep 5:23PM
Del Potro is a problem for Fedfans, not for Nadal fans. Fedfans wish Del Potro to defeat Nadal, because aging Federer is not capable of defeating Nadal. Nadal is capable of beating his rivals himself.
good return Del Potro, i am happy to see you playing again.I wasn't expecting you to win or play greats as you was showing us, it is so hard to get back to form after over 8 months off the tour and not only that, having surgen also is a very distructive matter, but you showed the first set at least that you are on they way and going to get back to the great shape again.
WAITNING YOU CHAMP!!!!!!!!!!!
Surely no more than is to be expected, it's going to be tough to regain form. By the way, I hope Nadal fans are not going to show the same lack of class as many of the Federer fans did when Rafa was injured, and wish him anything but the best in his recovery. I want to see Rafa win everything in sight, but I want him to do it against players that are fully fit and playing well.
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