Del Potro Defends DC Title With Victory Over Roddick
August 10, 2009
Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina successfully defended his title at the Olympus US Open Series event in Washington, D.C., with a 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(6) win over No. 1 seed Andy Roddick in today’s Legg Mason Tennis Classic final. With the victory, the No. 2 seed Del Potro collects his third career Olympus US Open Series tournament title and earns 70 total points to move into a tie for second place with Robby Ginepri in the men’s standings. Sam Querrey maintains his position atop the leaderboard in first place.
On the women’s side, No. 10 seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy appeared in her second consecutive Los Angeles final and won the LA Women’s Tennis Championships with a 6-4, 6-3 victory against No. 13 seed Samantha Stosur of Australia. With the victory, Pennetta moves into a three-way tie for first place with Stosur and Marion Bartoli in the women’s standings.
The men’s and women’s winners of the Olympus US Open Series will compete for $1 million in bonus prize money at the 2009 US Open. The Olympus US Open Series Bonus Challenge leaders after Week 3 are as follows:
Next on the Olympus US Open Series: The men will compete in Montreal at the Rogers Masters where the top four players in the world — Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic.— will each make their first Series appearance this summer. The women head to the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open in Cincinnati, marking the return of 2005 Olympus US Open Series and US Open champion Kim Clijsters. ESPN2 will provide more than 20 hours of coverage, including back-to-back finals on Sunday beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET. Tennis Channel will provide more than 25 hours of coverage beginning Tuesday.
Rafael Nadal won the 2008 Olympus US Open Series men’s title and Dinara Safina won the women’s title. In 2007, Roger Federer collected the biggest paycheck in tennis history — $2.4 million — for winning US Open and the Olympus US Open Series. In 2005, Kim Clijsters also captured both the US Open and the Olympus US Open Series, winning $2.2 million — the largest purse in women’s sports history.
Now in its sixth season, the Olympus US Open Series has established itself as a true regular season of hard court tennis, linking 10 summer tournaments to the US Open. In 2008, Olympus became the first title sponsor of the Series. The Olympus US Open Series is also supported by sponsors American Express, Evian and MassMutual Financial Group.