Del Potro books quarterfinal clash with Querrey
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Argentina's Del Potro, the 2011 Delray Beach champion playing just his second match of 2017, held on to beat the 24-year-old Bosnian 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 6-3.
Del Potro fired a backhand return wide to miss his first chance to seal the match, Dzumhur holding to make it 5-3 in the third.
Del Potro gained another chance with a forehand crosscourt
winner and secured the win when Dzumhur, scrambling back to defend a lob, missed a desperation between-the-legs attempt.
Del Potro, the 2009 US Open champion now ranked 42nd in the world, is making his 2017 debut this week, and the rust was evident in six double-faults – five of them in the first set.
That included two in the eighth game, in which he gave back a service break.
Del Potro fought off a set point to force the tiebreaker and after securing the first set seized a 3-1 lead in the second only to again give back a service break.
A double fault on break point at four-all cost the Argentine a second break of serve and, one game later, the set.
But once he'd broken to seize a 4-2 lead in the third, Del Potro wouldn't again surrender the advantage.
On Friday, he'll face 35th-ranked Querrey, the fourth-seeded wildcard who blasted 13 aces without a double fault in dispatching fellow American Jared Donaldson 6-2, 6-3 in a second-round match at the outdoor hardcourt event.
Also reaching the final eight was 57th-ranked Belgian qualifier Steve Darcis, who ousted Georgia's Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-3, 7-5. Darcis next faces 69th-ranked American Donald Young, who rallied to defeat compatriot Taylor Fritz 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
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