Del Potro advances in Swiss Indoors

Juan Martin del Potro overcame a first set back problem to make a winning start at the Swiss Indoors yesterday with a 6-4, 6-1 defeat of Alejandro Falla. The South American battle between the Argentine second seed and his Colombian opponent ranked 54th finished in just under 90 minutes with del Potro running away with the second set to insure a second-round spot. There was trouble for two other seeds at the St. Jakobshalle arena, with Frenchman Benoit Paire upsetting last week’s Moscow titleholder Andreas Seppi, the number five seed, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. Australian Marinko Matosevic put out Florian Mayer, the German seventh seed, 6-2, 6-3. Paul-Henri Mathieu of France beat Swiss-Finn Henri Laaksonen 6-2, 7-5. Del Potro is hunting for one of two remaining spots in the eight-man year-end championships in London from November 5, standing provisional seventh ahead of French back injury victim Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and number nine Serb Janko Tipsarevic, who quit this week — as did Tsonga — with a physical problem at the Valencia event. The Argentine broke five times in his victory, his 58th of the season against 14 losses. Del Potro broke to start the match but was overhauled for 2-all in a game in which he saved three break points. He took on-court treatment and conferred with a doctor and trainer after the fifth game but carried on with apparent problems to save the opener after three-quarters of an hour after a break in the penultimate game and a love game to finish the set. Isner ousted by Goffin in 2nd round In Valencia, Spain, John Isner’s poor end-of-season form continued at the Valencia Open yesterday as the big-serving American lost 7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-4 to David Goffin in the second round. The American player hit 21 aces but it wasn’t enough against his Belgian opponent, who is enjoying an impressive season in which he is climbing the rankings. Goffin started the year at No. 175 and is currently ranked 45th. Isner has gone 4-5 since winning in Winston-Salem in August, and will find his bid to qualify for the World Tour Finals next month severely limited with only the Paris Masters left to play before the season-ending event. Reigning champion Marcel Granollers of Spain also beat Czech qualifier Jan Hajek 7-5, 6-4 to advance to the second round. From Arab News