Tragic end to Del Potro’s Dubai tennis campaign

Injury forces him to concede 1^st round game against Somdev

All three of the men’s tournament wildcards at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships began to repay the faith shown in them by tournament organisers with first-round victories on Tuesday. India’s Somdev Devvarman edged a first-set tie-breaker against the second-seeded Argentine Juan Martin del Potro 7-3 on Centre Court before the latter had to retire with a recurrence of a left-wrist injury.

“It’s unfortunate, especially for a guy like him,” said the 2014 Delhi Open champion, who saved three set points at 5-6, 0-40 down in the opener. “He’s been playing really good tennis to be in the top five and I wish him nothing but the best and a good recovery. It’s obviously sad. He’s a quality player and a class act, so I hope he recovers well for Indian Wells and Miami and has a good year ahead.

“I just tried to fight hard and tried my best to make things tough for him and easier for me. I’m just happy that I got through today (Tuesday). “But, I don’t feel like it was a quality top-10 win or anything. It’s unfortunate that the guy was injured. “Even though I feel like I’m playing well, it would have been nice to play a match against a top-five guy and see how I did.”

Devvarman’s contentment at coming through, albeit in unwanted circumstances for all parties concerned, contrasted markedly with the downbeat demeanour of ‘Delpo’ in his post-match press conference afterwards. “It was really tough to play today and I tried everything,” said Del Potro, who shed tears on court and came close to them in his media briefing.

“My wrist is hurting a lot. I have been in contact with my doctor all of the time. He’s trying to keep me motivated to keep playing, but I know what my limit is playing on court. Today was enough.

“Now, I will see what he says for the future and I will let you know very soon what my plan is going to be.” Malek Jaziri, of Tunisia, came back from a first-set bagel (6-0) to level things up in the second with a 6-4 scoreline. He then saved five match points when serving at 6-5, 15-40 down in the decisive third and the subsequent tie-break was nip-and-tuck until — from 3-3 — Jaziri won four of the next five points to prevail 0-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4).

“Today was a tough, three-set match,” admitted Jaziri, who will meet Devvarman next, guaranteeing there will be an Arab or an Indian player in the quarter-finals.