07 September,2016 08:53 AM IST | | AFP
Juan Martin del Potro became the lowest ranked player in 25 years to reach the US Open quarter-finals Monday, setting up a showdown with fellow Grand Slam title winner, Stan Wawrinka
Juan Martin del Potro
New York: Juan Martin del Potro became the lowest ranked player in 25 years to reach the US Open quarter-finals Monday, setting up a showdown with fellow Grand Slam title winner, Stan Wawrinka.
Juan Martin del Potro
The 142nd-ranked del Potro was leading eighth-seeded Dominic Thiem 6-3, 3-2 when the Austrian retired with a right knee injury. Del Potro, the 2009 US Open champion who was pushed to the brink of retirement earlier this year after undergoing three surgeries on his left wrist, will next face third seed Wawrinka for a semi-final place.
Wawrinka, a former Australian and French Open champion, reached a fourth successive quarter-final in New York with a hard-fought 6-4, 6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3 win over Illya Marchenko, the world number 63 from Ukraine.
"You never want to win a match like this. I wish Dominic a quick recovery as he has a great future," said del Potro, the lowest-ranked man in the last-eight since Jimmy Connors, at 174, went all the way to semi-finals in 1991.
