Home Articles U.S. Open News Del Potro Knocks out Federer to Become New US Open Champ
Del Potro Knocks out Federer to Become New US Open Champ
Monday, 14 September 2009 20:52
By Todd Pechter
uso-9-14-01In a hard-fought five-set contest, sixth-seed Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina defeated five-time defending champion Roger Federer, 3-6, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2, to win this year’s US Open. It was a back and forth affair, with the powerful strokes of del Potro finally seeming to wear down the top-ranked Federer.

While from the outset Federer did not appear to have brought his “A” game today, through the first part of the match it still seemed he would be good enough  to claim his sixth straight title here and add to his record total of Grand Slam victories. As it turned out, Federer’s total remains at 15, while del Potro gets his first notch on the Grand Slam tote board, with promise of more to come.

Del Potro took the court looking like a prizefighter entering the ring. In the first set, both players seemed to be jabbing at each other, feeling each other out in a manner that produced some spotty play. While Federer wasn’t up to his usual standards, he still displayed uncanny shot making. He apparently came into the match with a game plan to mix things up and avoid going toe-to-toe from the baseline against delPo’s overwhelming ground game.

It’s one thing to have a game plan, it’s quite another to be able to execute it. Federer used drop shots, mixed in spins, came into net frequently and hit great angle shots to keep del Potro a bit off-balance. It worked well at the outset, Federer breaking del Potro the first time he served, giving the Swiss star all he needed to take the first set. But the strategy started to fall apart as del Potro’s game started to pick up.

Toward the end of the second set, the big right-hander had found his footing and started slugging the way he had been in his earlier matches here. Many of his big forehand blows failed to connect, finding the net or landing well outside the lines, but more and more started to hit their mark as the set wore on.

The big point in the match came with Federer serving at 5-4, needing only to hold serve to take a two-set lead. If that happens, Federer has proven to be a great front-runner, and the match is all but over. At deuce, with Federer at net, del Potro hit a passing shot that was called out. Del Potro challenged the call, and the computer review showed the ball barely landing on the line, much to Federer’s disbelief—he even went over and pointed to a ball mark outside the line (and in interviews after the match, he still claimed the ball was out.) Del Potro was awarded the point, giving him a break point opportunity which he converted with another big forehand passing shot, this one landing clearly within the lines. That got him into the eventual tie-break that allowed him to even the match at one set each.

In the third set, the match was becoming more of a slugfest. Even if that wasn’t the way he wanted to do things at the outset, Federer can usually hold his own in such a contest, and he did manage to win the 3rd set to take a 2-1 lead. But del Potro was now playing in his comfort zone, his shots hitting their marks and starting to wear Federer down.

The fourth set was played to a draw, and went to another tie-breaker. On the first point of the breaker, in a very uncharacteristic display, Federer double- faulted:  He does not usually “give away” points, especially big ones. This one gave delPo a leg up in the tie-break that he then built upon to win it at 7-4, evening up the match.

And in the 5th set, del Potro was pounding the ball much in the same way he had pounded it against Rafael Nadal in the semifinals. Even the resourceful Federer had no answers for the onslaught, and del Potro took the set 6-2, to become the new US Open champ.

Earlier in the tournament, we told you not to be surprised when del Potro challenged Federer and Nadal to be the best on the men’s tour, if not in official rankings, then in stature. What’s surprising, though, is that it’s happening this soon in his career—the Argentine will turn 21 on Sept. 23.

The thought was that Nadal, though only 23 himself, has already played a lot of tennis and seems to be vulnerable to injury, his recent abdominal injury and a recurring knee problem before that having been the most serious. His style of play requires him to be near 100% to win, and no one knows how long he can keep that up.

And then Federer is 28 years old. That translates to 58 in real people years—the formula being multiplying the age by two, then adding or subtracting a few years here or there for things like marriage and kids and such. (All right, so it’s not an exact science). So it seemed that in a year or two, there would be a high probability that del Potro could surpass one or both Nadal and Federer in rankings and in getting his name on the trophy at Grand Slam events.

As this year’s US Open champion, he has his first Grand Slam, and odds are good there will be many more great things to come for him. Hopefully he’ll stay injury free and be able to come back here and compete for years to come—at least until he’s 28.
 

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