Top seed Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina won the Citi Open for the third time in his career with a tough 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory over American John Isner on Sunday. Del Potro has a 14-1 record in this event that’s being held in Washington, D.C. with titles in 2008 and 2009 as well.
“It’s amazing. I’m so happy to win here once again,” he said. “Always when you win a tournament, it’s special, it’s big. And after Wimbledon, to be in my first tournament on hard court, it means a lot.”
Despite the loss, Isner said that he has a positive outlook with how he performed in the past few weeks. The American won last week’s Atlanta Open to take the early lead in the Emirates Airline US Open Series standings.
“I take a lot of positives out of these two weeks given how I played during these matches,” said Isner. “I won a bunch of close matches en route to the title last week and the final today. Winning last week and making it to the finals here are very good results.”
This is Del Potro’s 15th career title and second of the year. He won the Rotterdam event earlier in 2013 (another ATP 500 event). The victory places Del Potro in second place at the US Open Series standings.
It can be noted that when Del Potro won the Citi Open in 2009, he went on to win his first and only Grand Slam event – the US Open.
“I’m looking forward to Montreal, Cincinnati and the US Open,” he said. “That gives me big confidence to keep trying and getting closer to the top guys.”
The Argentine went home with $295,200 plus 500 ranking points while Isner pocketed $134,600 and earned 300 ranking points.
