Former champion Juan Martin del Potro had to set friendship aside on Friday to post a 6-2, 6-1, 7-5 victory over Diego Junqueira in the second round of the US Open. On paper the 18th-ranked del Potro, the 2009 US Open winner, faced an easy task against the 104th-ranked Junqueria, who has toiled on the lesser Challenger circuit for much of this year.
But the two grew up together in Tandil, Argentina, and del Potro said that made for a tricky encounter. “It’s very tough to play against a friend,” he said. ‘We live in the same town, we know each other since we were five years old.”
