Del Potro beats Zverev to enter Shanghai Masters quarters

Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina produced one of his best performances of the tennis season here on Thursday, overcoming a one-set deficit to beat third-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 to reach the Shanghai Rolex Masters quarter-finals.

The 20-year-old Zverev, who has collected 5 ATP World Tour titles this season, lost his temper when broken by the Argentine at 2-2 in the decider and flung his racquet down to the ground, reports Xinhua news agency.

Zverev came to the match strong and raced to a 3-0 lead in the first set within 10 minutes. But 16th seeded Del Potro found his form in the second set, scored 5 love games and levelled the set-score with a 7-5 victory in the tie-break.

"I think I didn't play well the first game of the match with my serve, but when I saw the stats on the TV, and I was winning more points returning than him, but I lost the set. I said to me, Okay, you're playing good. You have to just try to keep going. And that's what I did for the second and the third set," the 2009 US Open champion Del Potro said.

Zverev, who has already secured a berth in the ATP World Tour Finals in London, fired 22 Aces in the match, but couldn't find solutions when his opponent served.

Del Potro, the 2013 Shanghai Masters runner-up, will face either American no. 12 seed John Isner or Viktor Troicki of Serbia on Friday.

--IANS

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