Juan Martin del Potro is back in the U.S. Open quarterfinals after Dominic Thiem retired in the second set of their match.
Advertisement
Afterwards, Thiem, the eighth seed, explained that he had been carrying a sore knee since his previous match against Pablo Carrena Busta.
At a break down at 3-2 in the second set, it was Thiem’s turn to call out the trainer due to a right knee injury which was clearly affecting his movement.
If by chance he can continue this magical run, and get to Sunday’s final, del Potro would be the very first wild card in the US Open final and the lowest-ranked grand slam finalist in the history of the ATP rankings.
Del Potro will play Stan Wawrinka in the last-eight after the Swiss beat Illya Marchenko of Ukraine 6-4 6-1 6-7 (5) 6-3.
Although he hadn’t reached the second week of a slam since Wimbledon 2013, he has arrived in the quarter-finals of the US Open without dropping a single set.
The Ukrainian, who arrived in NY on a seven-match losing streak, battled back from 2-4 and 3-5 down in the third set to force a tiebreaker.
Thiem said his knee started hurting three days earlier, and he speculated it was the indirect result of blisters on his feet – he needed to alter his gait to compensate.
“I was close to retire before my third surgery but after that I always believe in myself to come back”, said Del Potro, who will face the victor between third seed Swiss Stan Wawrinka and Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko.
The fifth-seeded Romanian won 6-2, 7-5 on Monday.
Like many have tried, Thiem searched for success by targeting the Del Potro backhand, fully aware of the firepower that the Argentine possess on his potent forehand wing.
“I’m not anxious about my wrist at the moment because I’m practicing every day”, he said. Thiem returned to the court, but after 1 point he was forced to quit.
Jimmy Connors was ranked 174 when he went to the US Open semi-finals in 1991 at the age of 39.
Del Potro said: ‘I was close to retiring before my third surgery [on his wrist last year], but after that I always believe in myself to come back to tennis.
“You can’t take too many risks with the knee”.
Still exhausted after the stunning run to an Olympic silver medal that announced him as a contender again, he got a huge break in spending only 72 minutes on court.
Advertisement
Del Potro is aware he needs to hit his backhand better in order to compete against all the best players in the world. ‘I would like to improve my backhand. Pliskova broke for 6-5 on a net-cord victor when her rival looked set to put a volley away. Sometimes it bothers me a little bit but I can deal with that. “I got the power from the crowd in every match”. This time there was no coming back and the 11th-seeded Pliskova achieved a significant milestone: Reaching a maiden grand slam quarterfinal. He served efficiently, was lethal at the net, took all three break opportunities and hit a mere 10 unforced errors.Elsewhere, Kei Nishikori booked his place in the last eight with a straight sets victory over Ivo Karlovic in the last match to be held on Louis Armstrong before it is rebuilt.
