By Chris Oddo | Thursday March 1, 2018
Juan Martin del Potro has a knack for defeating Dominic Thiem and he continued his winning ways against the Austrian on Thursday at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco.
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The Argentine won for the fourth time in four battles against Thiem, notching a 6-2, 7-6(7) victory that threatened to turn into a dramatic affair before Del Potro put the kibosh on Thiem’s last-ditch comeback attempt.
Photo credit: Guillermo Sanchez
Down a set and break, Thiem mounted a late rally that saw him break serve with Del Potro serving for the match and eventually claim three set points in the second-set tiebreaker.
But a wobbly Del Potro summoned the energy he had left to fight off Thiem.
He saved two set points in succession to level at 6-all and then cracked back-to-back aces from 6-7 down before claiming victory when Thiem double-faulted on Del Potro’s first match point.
It wasn’t an ideal night from the service stripe for Thiem. He won just 8 of 26 second-serve points and was broken three times on six opportunities.
In a match that was hailed as a rematch of last year’s epic comeback victory by Del Potro at the U.S. Open’s round of 16, Thiem could not create his own fairy tale ending.
Photo credit: Guillermo Sanchez
The Argentine will look to make it back-to-back Top 10 wins when he faces second-seeded Alexander Zverev in Friday’s semifinals. Del Potro defeated the German in three sets in their only previous meeting last fall at Shanghai.
Zverev saved all four break points he faced in defeating American Ryan Harrison 6-4, 6-1.
The top half semifinal will feature No.5-seeded Kevin Anderson and American Jared Donaldson. Anderson got past Hyeon Chung, 7-6(5), 6-4, while Donaldson pummeled Feliciano Lopez, 6-3, 6-1.