Del Potro through to first win at Barclays ATP World Tour Finals

London: Juan Martin del Potro stuttered to his first win in the tournament with a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (1) result against Spain's Fernando Verdasco at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals here on Tuesday.

The lanky Argentinean, also called the ‘Tower of Tandil' had started off with a 6-3, 3-6, 2-6 loss against home favourite Andy Murray on the opening day on Sunday.

And on Tuesday, too, he was pretty much headed the same way till he did just enough to win an easy tie-break and notch his first win here to keep alive his chances for a semifinal spot on Saturday.

For Verdasco, this was his second successive defeat here following a similar three-set defeat against world number one Roger Federer.

Del Potro did well at the start, cashing in on a hesitant looking Verdasco to register a break in the third and then hold for a 3-1 lead and ultimately win the set 6-4 in a mere 38 minutes.

Verdasco returned the favour and took exactly the same time to hit back and win the second 6-3 with breaks in the seventh and ninth games.

Forced into a third set for the second time this week, Del Potro broke in the sixth and then held for 5-2. But the Spaniard had other intentions as he won the next three games to draw level 5-5.

The decider went into the tie-break and Del Potro won it 7-1 to establish a 1-0 career record against the Spaniard following their first-ever meeting on the ATP World Tour.

This is the first time that the duo are playing each other on the ATP World Tour – they did play way back in 2006, but that was at the Segovia Challenger in Spain with the Argentine winning in a third set tie-break.

Result: Juan Martin del Potro bt Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (1).