The top 3 seeds guaranteed their spots on the semi final matches of the Dubai Duty Free Men’s Open happening at the Dubai Tennis Stadium on Friday. Top seeded player and defending champ Novak Djokovic will take on 3rd seed Andy Murray, whereas four time champ Roger Federer will go one on one with Juan Martin Del Potro.
Novak secured a tough 6 – 1, 7 – 6 (6) victory over his very close friend and compatriot Janko Tipsarevic and Andy Murray got an easy win against 5th seed Tomas Berdych 6 – 3, 7 – 5.
In the lower end of the draw, Roger Federer took his tennis career record to 12 – 0 against Mikhail Youzhny with a 6 – 3, 6 – 4 licking of the single unseeded player in the quarter-final matchws, and after that Del Potro – who had defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in last Friday’s semi-final match in Marseille, rose up with a repetition with a 7 – 6 (1), 6 – 2 result against the French player.
Roger Federer was not off to his general boom at the onset, but he fused as the set went on getting his 1st break in the 4th for a 3 – 1 lead. Federer told that it is not easy. He played nice on the services games. He is really pleased with another semi final match in Dubai. Roger added that the 2nd set with an early break kept for 2 – 0 and moved all the way to grab set and match 6 – 4 to fix a repeat of the Rotterdam Open final took place last month. Federer told that both of them have been playing well of late and he has met both of them quite a few times in recent past. Either of them will do for him in the semi-final match.
Last year’s Davis Cup runners up Argentina will take on Germany in their first round Davis Cup tie in Germany and they will have to do it without the services of their highest ranked player in the ATP Tour circuit, Juan Martin Del Potro.
The world number ten has been a consistent performer for his country throughout the last couple of editions of the Davis Cup as well as on the Tour circuit but David Nalbandian believes that the team is well balanced to not feel the absence of the high profile player.
According to Nalbandian, the Argentines have been knocking on the doors of Davis Cup glory for the last few years now and he believes that this season is their best chance yet to bring the famous trophy home for the first time. Asked whether the team would face any difficulties in the absence of their star man Juan Martin Del Potro, Nalbandian said that the team is balanced enough at the moment, having played together for many years now and under the new captain, they will have a new strategy that will hopefully cancel out the fact that they would be missing the highest ranked Argentine in their lineup.
Del Potro himself said that he would be missing the Davis Cup tie and the boys pretty much, having to sit at home and nursing his injury but he also added that he might travel to Germany to watch them play if the doctor permits.
Juan Martin Del Potro also added that unlike some of the big name players who plan to skip the Davis Cup this year because of the Olympic Games, he will play for Argentina if they progress beyond this match and not complain about fatigue or the Olympic Games taking its toll on him.
With the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the year all set to begin in a fortnight’s time, Argentine tennis player Juan Martin Del Potro believes that the top ranked three players in the world, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are too far ahead of the trailing pack and it would only take a miracle to stop any one of the three from winning the Grand Slam events this year.
The 23 year old Argentine is the only player in the last four years other than Djokovic, Nadal and Federer to have won a Grand Slam title when he won the 2009 US Open defeating the Swiss Maestro Roger Federer in the final, thereby becoming the tallest ever Grand Slam champion. As a result, he believes that he knows what it takes to overcome the monopoly of the trio and having done that, the others will also try and do what he did. According to Juan Martin Del Potro, only the likes of David Ferrer, Andy Murray and one or two others have the capacity to overcome the three top ranked players and as a result, the playing field isn’t very level at all, as far as the Argentine is concerned.
However, Del Potro is still confident ahead of the start of the season that there will be cracks in the armor of all the three top players and when that does happen, the trailing pack will be waiting to pounce on them and he hopes that luck is on his side once again.
Juan Martin Del Potro has been looking forward to the Australian Open for quite some time and the world number 11 is hopeful of a repeat performance of the 2009 US Open and wins his second Grand Slam title in the city of Melbourne.
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March 8, 2012 9:24 am | 
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