Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina celebrates a point won over Rhyne Williams of the U.S. during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday. AP
MELBOURNE, Australia—Fifth-seeded Juan Martin del Potro recovered from a slow start to defeat United States qualifier Rhyne Williams 6-7 (1), 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 in the first round of the Australian Open on Tuesday.
Del Potro, the 2009 U.S. Open champion, made several unforced errors to drop the first-set tiebreaker, but cleaned up his game in the second set and controlled the rest of the three-hour match.
The Argentine player is coming off a victory at the Sydney International tournament last week, his 18th career title.
He hadn’t lost to a player ranked as low as No. 130-ranked Williams since Tokyo in 2009, when he fell to No. 189 Edouard Roger-Vasselin.
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