Miami – Argentine Juan Del Potro failed to fire in his return from wrist surgery, with the crowd-pleaser losing 6-4, 7-6 (9-7) to Canadian Vasek Pospisil to exit in his opening match at the Miami Masters.
The former number four who now stands 616 after undergoing a left wrist operation last year, double-faulted on a set point which would have levelled the contest with his 60th-ranked opponent at a set each. But he saved a Pospisil match point with an ace before sending a return long over the baseline to lost.
Del Potro was playing for the first time since losing a January Sydney quarter-final, part of a doomed comeback attempt which ended as he withdrew with wrist pain prior to the Australian Open start.
His best showing in front of the Latin Miami crowd was a 2009
semi-final.
Pospisil fired 35 winners while Del Potro was saddled with 25
unforced errors and converted on one of his six break chances. The Argentine finished the 2014 season outside the top 100 for the first time since 2005 after contesting just four tournaments during the year.
With men's seeds still waiting for the start of the second round, two young hopefuls advanced in the heat and humidity.
German Alexander Zverev beat Sam Groth of Australia 7-5, 6-7
(5-7), 6-4 while Croatian Borna Coric mounted a fightback to overcome Austrian Andreas Haider-Maurer 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3).
On the women's WTA side, seventh seed Agnieszka Radwanska got out of danger to defeat Anna Schmiedlova 6-4, 7-5.
“I was in trouble, especially in that second set,” said Radwanska. “But what was most important is that I was really playing good shots in the really key points, in the break points. I'm very glad that I could finish in two sets.”
German ninth seed Andrea Petkovic defeated Christina McHale 6-2, 6-2, Spain's 12th seed Carla Suárez Navarro stopped Swiss Stephanie Voegele 6-3, 6-1 and Czech 14th seed Karolina Pliskova put out German Annika Beck 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. – Sapa-dpa