Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro defied all the odds and beat Roger Federer 3–6, 7–6, 4–6, 7–6, 6–2 to win the U.S. Open Men’s Singles championship on Monday in Flushing, N.Y.
The 20-year-old showed tremendous maturity, resilience, and a ferocious forehand to best tennis’s greatest player of all time. In fact, Federer’s last loss at the U.S. Open came in 2003 to another Argentine, David Nalbandian.
“He [Del Potro] was the best,” said Federer in his on-court interview during the post-match ceremony.
“It’s amazing for South America and for me,” said Del Potro. “It will be in my mind forever.”
In an up-and-down match, momentum shifts occurred on numerous occasions. The windy conditions made for some sloppy play (both players had more unforced errors than winners) but the drama was intense and the capacity crowd of 23,500 in Ashe Stadium ate up every minute of the four-hour match.
Del Potro began the match like a deer in the headlights of a freight train. Federer, a notoriously fast starter, jumped all over the 6’6” Argentine, breaking serve at the first opportunity.
One could excuse Del Potro for being a little awestruck given the occasion—his first grand slam final against the a gentleman who was won 15 of them.
Federer took the first set despite a 41 percent first serve percentage. He managed to break Del Potro early in the second set and it looked like another routine Federer victory was imminent.
The turning point in the match came when Del Potro broke back to take the second set to a tiebreak. Del Potro fired two big down-the-line forehand winners to break Federer’s serve for the first time in the match.
The first winner was initially called out. Del Potro challenged the ruling, which was then shown to be in. Federer questioned the ruling and instead focused on a mark the ball supposedly left on the court.
Federer’s irritability would be an ongoing theme in the final. He had a couple of arguments with chair umpire Jake Garner about challenges and how long one can take before deciding to challenge a call.
Del Potro took the second set tiebreak and had the momentum in his court at the start of the third set.
“I think if I win the second set, I’m in a great position to come through. Unfortunately, I didn’t win that and that was it,” said Federer in a post-match interview on www.usopen.org.
Del Potro started unleashing his forehand for which Federer had no answer. It’s a rare thing to see Federer lose control of the baseline but that is what Del Potro was able to do. Federer continued to serve poorly as his first serve percentage remained below 50 percent and his double faults mounted.
Del Potro broke Federer to go up 4–3 in the third set but then immediately dropped serve. In a disastrous tenth game, he served up two consecutive double faults to give Federer the third set.
Del Potro started to feel that he need not rely on his serve to win cheap points. Instead, he felt he could get a higher percentage of first serves in and take his chances in the rallies with his big forehand.
This new strategy led him to gain the first break in the fourth set but his strategy of not going for big first serves backfired when Federer broke back.
But Federer’s momentum would run out as soon as the fourth set tiebreak began. Federer’s first service point resulted in a double fault. Del Potro pushed the match into a fifth set.
Fifth Set
The last time the U.S. Open witnessed a fifth set in a men’s final was back in 1999 when Andre Agassi defeated Todd Martin.
The fifth set was all Del Potro. In fact, it was almost a reverse image of the first set. Del Potro broke Federer at the first opportunity and then proceeded to break Federer to win the match. He avoided the nerve-jangling experience of serving for the championship.
Federer’s backhand produced two bad errors in the final game to make things much easier for Del Potro. The Swiss master racked up 11 double faults and only converted on five of 22 break point chances.
Del Potro fell to the court sobbing tears of joy. He then raised his long arms in a combination of joy and disbelief as he thanked the fans.
“Maybe tomorrow, maybe next week I will be believing in this,” said Del Potro. “But now, I don’t know. I don’t understand nothing.”
He thanked his parents in Spanish as well as the crowd. “The crowd helped me, and they saw my fight in every point.”
Federer added: “Got to give him all the credit because it’s not an easy thing to do, especially coming out against someone like me with so much experience.”
And that’s what makes Del Potro’s win truly remarkable.
