Juan Martin del Potro made a winning return on his first appearance at Roland Garros in five years on Tuesday. The popular No. 29 seed hit 33 winners, including 13 aces, past fellow Argentine Guido Pella in a 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 victory.
“It's never easy when you have to play a friend, a guy like Guido... We have a great relationship... Of course I would like to play another player, for sure, but that's the draw. I got lucky because I played a very good match today,” del Potro said. “[Roland Garros] is an amazing tournament for Argentinian people, and I love to be playing this tournament again after five years.”
We ️ you too, @delpotrojuan.#RG17 pic.twitter.com/6NjqeCXMln
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 30, 2017
The 6'6" Argentine reached the 2009 semi-finals, and in 2012 advanced to the last eight (l. to Federer both times). He will next face Nicolas Almagro, who hit 16 aces to beat Marcos Baghdatis 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(1).
“Del Potro will try to dictate play with his forehand. I'll try to counter him. I will try and play to his backhand. I will be very aggressive. This is my style of tennis, to be aggressive,” Almagro said.
Pella, who reached the final at the BMW Open by FWU in Munich earlier this month (l. to Alexander Zverev), falls to 0-2 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against del Potro.
“Today, he's better than me,” said Pella. “He played better than me. I tried to play my game but he has a big forehand [and a] big serve. So he did very good job today.”
#NextGenATP Korean Hyeon Chung converted six of eight break points to knock out 27th seed Sam Querrey 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in two hours and 15 minutes. Chung will face Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin, who won nine of 10 net points to beat #NextGenATP American Ernesto Escobedo 7-6(3), 6-3, 6-4.
Go inside the tournament at RolandGarros.com.