Del Potro Wins!

Rowan here, finishing up the Auckland blogging coverage thing. Two weeks full of tennis, whew. I need to watch some cricket.

Juan Martin del Potro beat Sam Querrey in straight but tough sets in the Heineken Open final today, 64 64. In the end del Potro got the big break in both sets at 4 games all and then served it out, though not without some hard work. Sam Q has got skills, he really is more than a serve you know. When you can hang in rallies with Nicolas Almagro, David Ferrer and Juan Martin del Potro you know you are a tough player. In his victory speech JMDP congratulated Sam on his run and joked that he definitely did not want to play Sam in Melbourne. But the day belonged to Juan Martin, he is tougher than a two dollar steak. I bet nobody is looking forward to playing him in Melbourne either, cos once he gets on a roll he can be hard to stop. 23 wins in a row anyone?

Doubles final as well today, top seeds Martin Damm and Robert Lindstedt beat second seeds Scott Lipsky and Leander Paes. Leander Paes is awesome, he’s a bit of a legend and a very entertaining guy. They had the prizegiving for both singles and doubles after the singles final, and Leander came out in his civvies, totally rocking the designer shades and what I presume were designer jandals. He has fabulous hair too.

So that’s it, the New Zealand swing is over Rover. We’ve had two really good tournaments, with perfect weather, plenty of exciting matches and in the end two great champions. Elena Dementieva and Juan Martin del Potro, doesn’t get much better than that. Their names on the trophies make the Auckland events look good. Has everybody noticed that Leni won in Sydney as well this week? She’s on a roll herself.

Thanks to Paula for having me here at her terrific blog, it’s been great fun for me. I’m looking forward to reading her and Rick Rock’s thoughts on the Aussie Open, as well as everything else!