Juan Martin del Potro reached the Olympic semifinals for the second straight time with a 7-5, 7-6 (4) win over 10th seed Roberto Bautista Agut at the Rio Olympics. The 2009 U.S. Open champion reached the last four in the 2012 London Olympics.
Del Potro jumps out to early lead, Bautista Agut rallies to pull even, Argentine wins first set late
It was a dream start for del Potro as he immediately grabbed an opening break. After a love hold, the Argentine, using his massive forehand that's worked so well for him all tournament long, broke again, this time to 15 and he had a lightning-quick 3-0 lead. Batuista Agut is a gritty baseliner and he recovered one of the breaks, but still trailed 3-1.
After that, the next five games all went the way of the server and as a result, del Potro led 5-4. He stepped up to serve for the set, but was broken. Undeterred, he came right back to break the Spaniard in a 12 point game to take a 6-5 lead. Given a second chance to serve out the set, the Argentine made no mistake this time as he held his serve to 15 to win the set 7-5 and take a one set lead.
Del Potro takes early lead, gets broken back, wins set in a tiebreak to advance to the last four
Del Potro now had momentum and he used it to good effect to open the second set, breaking Bautista Agut in a 10-point game. After a battling hold, the Argentine now led 2-0 and the road back seemed a long way away for the Spaniard, but he broke in the fourth game to level the set at 2-2.
After four comfortable holds were exchanged, Bautista Agut was under pressure again on serve in the ninth game, facing a 15-40 deficit, but he won that game after battling through a couple of deuces. The 10th seed wasn't getting many looks on the del Potro serve and his fight to deuce in the tenth game had to be considered a half-chance wasted. They each held easily to send the set into a tiebreak.
In the tiebreak, del Potro took control early, gaining minibreaks in the first and fourth points to take a sizable 4-0 lead. Again, all seemed lost for Bautista Agut, but again he rallied to knot the breaker at 4-4. Those would be his last efforts of the match as del Potro won the final three points to win the set 7-6 (4) and advance to his second straight Olympic semifinal where he'll face 2008 gold medalist Rafael Nadal.