Australian Marinko Matosevic produced the shock of the first day of the ATP Austrian Open here on Monday as he beat Dutch sixth seed Robin Haase 1-6, 6-3, 6-2. Matosevic’s world ranking of 55 is the best of his career and the 27-year-old Aussie showed he means to hold onto it in his victory featuring five aces and four breaks of serve in 97 minutes.
Gilles Muller of Luxembourg staged a fightback to overcome Belgium’s Steve Darcis 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-3 with the winner firing down 16 aces but needing almost two and a half hours to advance. Argentine Juan Martin del Potro, the top seed, is making a re-appearance after a month out with a left wrist injury, last playing in a Davis Cup semi-final loss to the Czech Republic in Buenos Aires. The Argentine is fighting this week for one of three remaining spots at the World Tour Finals which wrap up the season from November 5 in London. Del Potro lost the Vienna final last year to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and will hope to go a step further this week to help his cause. The provisional number seven in the London field is expected to duel with number nine rival Janko Tipsarevic, also in with a chance and seeded two here. Spain’s David Ferrer on Monday claimed the fifth place behind Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and the injured Rafael Nadal.
Del Potro bearing down on
London finals place: Juan Del Potro is optimistic about his chances to qualify for the year-end World Tour Finals next month as the top seed prepared on Tuesday to begin his autumn indoor campaign at the Austrian Open.
The Argentine stands provisional seventh in a season points chase which has three more weeks to run before the start of the eight-man event on November 5 in London. He begins at the Stadehalle against the winner from a pair of qualifiers, German Daniel Brands or Belgian Ruben Bemelmans. Three London spots are open, but the likely injury absence of Rafael Nadal could mean that four more players have a chance to reach the field. Del Potro wants to be one of them. “I’m very exited about trying to qualify, I need to do well here and at my next event (Basle) in order to have a chance though,” the Argentine said as he continued training at the tournament where he lost the final a year ago to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. “I have to play consistently this week, it would be great to win the title here for the first time. That would help my chances,” said the 24-year-old, who is competing for the first time in a month after dealing with a left wrist injury. “I followed my rehab programme in Buenos Aires and did it well,” said the 2009 US Open winner who then missed most of the next season with a right wrist problem which required surgery.
