Del Potro wins IF Stockholm Open

Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro made the most of his wildcard entry, when he won his 19 tour level title at the IF Stockholm Open 2016 on Sunday night. He beat American sixth seed Jack Sock 7-5, 6-1. It is his first title since January 2014.

Del Potro, who has been battling wrist problems since the past two years, made sure that his successful comeback would continue beating Sock in an hour and a quarter.

Del Potro entered the final having not dropped a set the whole week, and was broken just twice, in the semifinals against Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria. Jack Sock on the other hand had rallied his way through, including a three hour long tussle against NextGen star Alexander Zverev 6-7(4), 7-6(4), 6-4.

Both the players started out the match evenly. However, it was Del Potro who raised his game at 5-5, to earn the first break of the match. There on, Del Potro proved just too good for the American No.1, clinching the second set 6-1.

“It was a tough match,” said Sock, who asked for treatment midway through the match for arm pain. “His serve is massive and very tough to read, which put more pressure on my serve. He just played well today. I’ve had a long week here and it might have caught up with me a bit.”

It was Sock’s second successive loss at the Stockholm Open Final, having lost to Czech Tomas Berdych last year.

Del Potro receives 250 ATP ranking points and €100,800 in prize money, while Sock took home 150 points and €53,085 for his performance.