By Chris Oddo | Thursday February 21, 2019
Juan Martin del Potro broke the serve of Reilly Opelka twice and advanced in straight sets to reach the last eight at Delray Beach.
Photo Source: Peter Staples/Getty
Juan Martin del Potro eased into the quarter-finals at the Delray Beach Open with a 6-4 6-4 victory over hard-serving American Reilly Opelka on Thursday night.
The Tower of Tandil, making his first appearance of 2019, needed just 74 minutes and survived 18 aces from Opelka as he managed to convert his only break point in both sets.
The top seed broke in the third game of the first set and in the ninth game of the second set and looked solid throughout, despite the fact that he wore tape just below his right knee and kineseo tape above the right knee that was injured last October.
Del Potro, the 2011 champion at Delray Beach, improves to 14-3 lifetime at the event. He’ll face American Mackenzie McDonald on Friday, after the World No. 84 took out Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in straight sets to also reach his first quarter-final of the season.
In other action on Thursday Nick Kyrgios was sent packing by Moldova’s Radu Albot, 6-2 4-6 6-3 in 1:24. Kyrgios, now ranked 64 in the world, cracked 19 aces but was broken three times by Albot.
Fourth-seeded Steve Johnson was also a winner. He defeated Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi 7-5 7-5 to reach his first quarter-final of the season.
Friday’s quarter-finals in Delray Beach shape up as follows: