Juan Martin Del Potro shows no signs of his recent red-hot run of form abating with the No. 6 seed putting in a ruthless display to dismiss #NextGenATP Australian Alex De Minaur at the BNP Paribas Open. The Argentine’s crushing forehand proved telling against his 19-year-old opponent in a 6-1, 6-2 victory.
He will next meet Spanish No. 29 seed David Ferrer for a fourth-round berth. The pair’s FedEx ATP Head2Head record is locked at 6-6, with Del Potro prevailing en route to his recent title in Acapulco.
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Struggling with Del Potro’s accuracy and heavy pace of shot early on, De Minaur quickly fell behind three set points serving to stay in the opening set. He saved one but relinquished the set when he looped a forehand narrowly long for 6-2 in 33 minutes.
The Australian made a sensational start to the season at home, reaching the semi-finals in Brisbane as a wild card (l. to Harrison) and followed it up with a run to his maiden ATP World Tour final in Sydney (l. to Medvedev).
But on Sunday, he came up against an opponent swinging freely with confidence sky-high. Del Potro had beaten three fellow Top 10 players in succession (Thiem, Zverev, Anderson) en route to his 21st career ATP World Tour title in Acapulco.
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“I played very aggressively in my returning games. I served well, and I think I played better than I expected before the match,” Del Potro said. “I'm still working on my backhand a lot. It's much better than a few months ago. I still need to improve if I want to hit hard and play down the line or crosscourt or whatever I like. But I'm using a lot of slices, drop shots, and I mix it up all the time, and that's good for my game.”
In a bid to change up his tactics in the second set, De Minaur pushed forward, pulling off some sublime volleys, but it was to little avail as Del Potro raced to 5-1.
Showing the type of grit and quick-fire counter-punching of his mentor, Lleyton Hewitt, De Minaur saved the three match points before Del Potro steadied to serve it out in 69 minutes. The 29-year-old’s best result in Indian Wells was a runner-up finish in 2013.
“He has to keep working hard because he’s only 19 years old, and the body is still growing,” Del Potro said of De Minaur. “But he has the conditions to be even better than today, and I wish all the best because he’s a nice guy.”
