DelPo defeated Gillou and reaches the QF, where he will play Nishikori (who pulled off a big upset when he defeated Ferru). Then, DelPo teamed up with Dulko in mixed dubs to defeat the Russian team of Mikhail Youzhny and Elena Vesnina.
Who knew he was a multi-tasker?!
Photo: ITF
They are the cutest mixed dubs team in the world (I can say that, because it’s the Olympics!):
Photo: ITF
As Jack Donaghy would say, “Look at those powerful chestnut haunches, glistening in the sun.” Gisela’s are nice too:) I love how she’s standing on her toes.
But DelPo-Dulko (DePulko) need to work on their celebration after winning points. Normally, it’s a hand-tap. DelPo was insisting on a fist-pump. This led to a fair bit of confusion:
Photo: ITF
Doubles-specialist Dulko said she told DelPo to have no mercy on Elena Vesnina, and to strike the ball to her as he would to a male player. I take it he listened to her, as they won 6-3 7-5. The lovely duo now face a strong American team in Raymond and Bryan.
**
For the singles match, in a rain-filled day, DelPo defeated the deceptively dangerous Gilles Simon in three sets, 6-1 4-6 6-3. For a nice change, I was able to see this match on a buffering stream. In the first set, DelPo served very well and he was not having any of Gillou’s attempts to lure him into endless rallies. The baguette scoreline said it all.
Unfortunately, DelPo went a bit walkabout in the 2nd set, but he woke up and found his range to win the match. By the end, he was serving well and hitting winners, many of which frustrated Gillou into yelling long French monologues at himself.
In the end, DelPo made it to the QF — he is the second Argentinean tennis player (after Gaby Sabatini) to reach the QF at the Olympics. The other Argie athletes, including Manu Ginobli, Nalby and Pico were sitting courtside, to cheer for DelPo:
During the match, the camera showed Nalby watching with his hand on his chin, and a mildly disapproving expression on his face. I thought it was funny 🙂
DelPo has a 3-0 H2H against Nishikori and he defeated Nishi in straight sets at Wimbledon this year. However, Nishi is a crafty opponent who can give all kinds of trouble to a player like DelPo. Nishi played very well to defeat Ferru — their match had to be rescheduled to a different court when darkness set. I don’t know if that played a part, but Ferru was very gracious in defeat. This is a big surprise for DelPo’s quarter of the draw, but I hope DelPo can make his way past Nishi into the final four.
mariposaxprs 
Yes, Delpo had his best day of tennis in ages. Thank Heaven the knee didn’t act up. Too bad NBC didn’t stream the doubles match, they are without a doubt the cutest team and the smaller crowd full of Argie fans made it more fun. If there’s a video of the full match out there somewhere, please let us know.
Now that his nemesis Ferrer is out of the way – and I couldn’t bear to see another Delpo meltdown if they played and he started losing – he’s got a good shot with Nishikori if El Gigante got lots of rest and let the rest of the Argie Boys party.
He’s been playing quite well here! Although he has his weak areas (the serving-out-sets and matches, in particular), he’s also showing that he has a lot of potential game to work with on grass. I can’t help but feel hopeful about his grass prospects, when I see him playing well with the serve and the aggressive shots off both wings.
I haven’t seen an available video for the full mixed-dubs match, but I will make sure to post if I do find one! I love how the Argies are supporting each other, sitting in each other’s boxes — for some strange reason, I don’t always associate them with that type of behavior, so it’s been a pleasant surprise to see them playing cheerleader 🙂
Now, the great Federer up next! I’m right with you, I do not want to see a meltdown. Thankfully, through the Kei match, it seems like he got the “meltdown part” out of the way though 😉