Del Potro gets 2017 campaign off on winning note

MIAMI, Florida: Former US  Open champ Juan Martin Del  Potro got his season off to another  successful start at the Delray  Beach Open, winning in  straight sets against Kevin Anderson  and overcoming an opening  set tumble in the process.  Del Potro wasn’t at his best,  especially on his backhand. But  he used his powerful serve and  blasted enough forehand winners  to beat the South African  6-4, 6-4.  Del Potro, who also started  his ATP Tour season last year at  the Delray Beach event, hammered  five aces and won 84 percent  of his first serve points in  the first-round battle between  two former tournamentwinners.  In anothermarqueematchup  on Tuesday, Canadian top seed  Milos Raonic blasted 10 aces in  downing US qualifier Tim Smyczek  6-1, 6-4 to reach the second  round.  Del Potro reached the semifinals  of this event last year before  going on to win 32 matches  and being named the Tour’s  comeback player of the year for  the second time.  The 28-year-old Argentinian,  who won the 2009 US Open  title, has endured three left  wrist and one right wrist surgeries  in his career.  On Tuesday, Del Potro  looked tentative at times but he  was also able to generate enough  pace on the ball to thwart Anderson’s  serve and volley attack.  He fought through four double  faults and a grazed right  knee he suffered in a fall in the  first set.  Australian sixth seed  Bernard Tomic became the first  seed ousted at the hard court  event, with Belgian qualifier  Steve Darcis rallying to deliver a  3-6, 6-1, 6-4 defeat to the world  number 31.  And 37-year-old second seed  Ivo Karlovic followed shortly  thereafter, falling 7-6 (7/5), 7-6  (7/3) to 69th-ranked American  Donald Young despite 19 aces  from the world number 20  Croatian.  Raonic,who had beaten Smyczek  in the first round of the  2015 US Open in their only prior  meeting, booked a second-round  matchup with 49th-ranked Croatian  Borna Coric, who eliminated  Colombia’s Santiago Giraldo  6-2, 6-3.  “Overall I have to be happy,”  Raonic said. “I haven’t played  much tennis over the last few  weeks, and I really put in as  much work as I could over the  last week to get into my best  shape here, and now I’m here.  “I’ve won my first match and  I hope I can continue. I feel  good.”  World number four Raonic is  seeking a ninth career ATP  crown. He has won at least one  title in each of the past six years  and last year reached his first  Grand Slam final, losing to  Britain’s Andy Murray at Wimbledon.  Darcis, ranked 57th, faced  only one break point over the  final two sets in fighting back to  bounce Tomic in 90 minutes,  booking a second-round match  against streaking Georgian  Nikoloz Basilashvili, who lost  Sunday’s ATP Memphis Open  final to American Ryan Harrison.  US third seed Jack Sock fired  eight aces in downing Moldova’s  Radu Albot 6-4, 7-6 (7/2). Sock,  ranked 21st, next plays Spain’s  Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, who  dispatched Germany’s Dustin  Brown 6-3, 6-3.  Both Del Potro and Haas  launched comeback bids on  Tuesday with Haas losing 6-7  (4/7), 7-6 (10/8), 6-2 to the red-hot  Basilashvili.  Haas underwent right foot  surgery last April and had not  played since October 2015 until  retiring from a first-round Australian  Open match last month.  —AFP