No. 5 Del Potro upsets No. 1 Ferrer in Tokyo; Berdych, Gasquet, Roddick advance

Despite heavy hitters being involved in all matches played on Friday at the AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo, no match went the distance, although the top seed and third seed were eliminated. No. 5 Juan Martin Del Potro (pictured) stunned defending champion and No. 1 seed David Ferrer, while No. 2 Andy Roddick, No. 4 Richard Gasquet and No. 9 Tomas Berdych were also successful this afternoon in their attempt to win the title.

Del Potro, one of the hottest players on the ATP Tour recently, dismantled the defending champion, 6-1, 7-5, in just over an hour and a half. The 20-year-old Argentine smashed six aces, lost only ten points on his first serve and was able to break serve five different times on ten opportunities. With the victory, the young Argentine won for the 28th time in his last 29 matches. The youngster improved to 37-9 on the season, including a 4-14 lifetime record against Top 10 players.

"I have changed a lot of things in my game and in my mind, there is not one in particular that has improved so much this year," said Del Potro. "It is a combination of a lot of things. The first set looked easy but I knew it was going to be harder than that because [Ferrer] is a warrior and fights until the last point."

Ferrer fell to 44-20 on the season after losing today. Ferrer previously beat Del Potro in both of their career meetings before today’s encounter.

"I am not surprised by how he played,” said Ferrer. “He has so much confidence right now winning all these matches the last two months. Today he served very well on important points: that was the difference. But I am still happy, as this was my best match in the last month. I don’t think about Shanghai now, I try to take it week by week. Now I have a couple of days off then I will prepare for Madrid."

Next up for Del Potro in the semifinals is No. 4 seed Gasquet of France, a 6-3, 6-2, winner over No. 12 Rainer Schuettler of Germany. In the one-hour match, Gasquet fired eight aces, while losing only seven points on his first serve. The young Frenchman was able to break serve on all three opportunities he had throughout the quick match. Del Potro and Gasquet have each won once against each other throughout their career with Gasquet winning their only hard court meeting, which occurred at the Masters Series Indian Wells in 2007.

In the lower half of the draw Roddick will meet Berdych for a place in the final. Roddick, the title winner last week in Beijing at the China Open, beat rising Serbian player Viktor Troicki, 6-3, 6-4, in 81 minutes. The American smashed seven aces, while breaking serve on three of ten chances. The 26-year-old who owns 26 career ATP singles titles improves his record to 44-13, while the Serbian drops to 19-17 on the year.

No. 9 Berdych showed no shame against No. 3 seed Fernando Gonzalez, winning easily, 6-0, 6-4, in just over an hour. Gonzalez played sloppy throughout, winning only nine points out of 35 in the opening set. Earlier this year at the Masters Series Cincinnati in the first round, Berdych beat Gonzalez in the pair’s fifth career meeting. The Czech Republic star improves to 30-19 on the season, while Gonzalez falls to 37-13 in a year that has been highlighted by a silver medal performance at the Beijing Olympics.