Roger Federer vs Juan Martin Del Potro / US Open Final

FYB,

Federer did exactly as you predicted! The only way he could lose the 2009 U. S. Open was to beat himself! He finally read his own headlines and when he needed to reach within himself the bag was empty. He is not the same player he was before Nadal took over the # 1 position. He has lost heart and his skills are leveling off. He will never again be the greatest player of all time. He will play top 3 tennis for another year then top 5 for another year then retire. He won't stick around for the love of the game as he will not allow his star to fade away to also ran. I predict that he will be out of the game within 3 years!

Federer DIDN'T play his best tennis and probably would have won in the 4th set if he did. But Del Potro started poorly then came on like a tiger and deserved to win. Good for him that he lasted thru the 5 sets but Roger's serve was off and he got that "defeated" attitude before it was due.

Guys
There is no doubt that we watch a brilliant tennis match. Federer plays his best tennis and Del Potro too the difference was that Del Potro mentally won the match beating Federer that couldn't keep up the pressure an stay focus till the end.
VAMOS DELPO TODAVIA !!!
Congratulatios Juan Martin you beat the best tennis player of all times !!

Another factor to Federer's loss besides Del Potro's powerful and brilliant performance: The US Open schedule. The US Open semi and final matches are on consecutive dates whereas other slams provide a day rest between the semi and the final. I suspect Federer being 8 years older, cannot recover as quickly as Del Potro after a tougher semifinal match. In the final, he was not serving well and was out of gas at the end. It will be difficult for Roger to win another US Open as he gets older unless he got a cakewalk on a semi.

Anyway, the day belongs to Del Potro, congratulations!

i agree with nestor 100%, i dont think that nalbandian is less talented than delpo but he has no interest in writting his name in historia, delpo has already done it and i am sure that he will keep growing and growing like no argentinian player has ever done.
Rios is nothing compared to delpo and he will never be. VAMOS ARGENTINA CARAJO!

Del Potro, besides all the other players from Argentina, has something that makes a champion: he has a strong will. He is very focused on his career and he's decided to do any sacrifice to reach the goal. We will have a number one very soon, and not an ephemeral one, but a solid player that will be a nightmare for everyone else.
From Argentina, with a great pride and joy!

Del Potro managed to believe he can win at the moment Federer seemed to have no answers to certain situations. Even like this, Federer arrived 2 points from victory. Great final.

Federer bad serve´s were because of Del potro was dominatig so federer started to look for aces and even on second serves he risked a lot that is because he served bad. so del potro induced those serves it didn´t was federer

just wanted to say that your comments have been of great help to improve my game... thanks a lot... DelPo rocks !!!!

Eduardo - Brazil

Del Potro shows perspective and it`s very stable and remember all you guys what Agassi said if you had control you can beat every posible player on planet no matter if he is big or small it`s just hitting right shot at right time that all.

Too bad that after sampras left profi federer had luck with players like safin and hewitt and all unstable player like roddick he just used them as honeypot.Remember Federer always attack no drill .And you know why because players let them do it not vice versa.

Del potro was able to save energy and use his stunning forehand only when needed ,federer`s serve just wasn`t so good, another reason that swiss army player is only human ,second federer was tired and pressure was another reason for him to handle.So why did Del Potro win ?simply because he has nothing to lose 1 grand slam vs 16 grand slam you could tell the difference .

I will give Roger one or two grand slam title at the end of next year otherwise he is busted gone ,he will leave the court at the end of 2011 that`s sure.

think Federer will continu collecting GS, because he is good and guys lick Del Potro, Murray, Djokovic, those are good too, but it's not everyday that they will be that good, I mean to the point of getting over Federer. Let's remember that when Del Potro had an injury, in wimbeldon, he was gone before quarters, while Federer still managed to make it to finals (and 5 set close matchs) when he was ill (severly ill) or had injury.
I think this year was really intriguing : it was the declin of two major forces, Federer and Nadal, at their own play ground, the international tennis is feeling good more than ever, and expectations are higher than ever : will Fed be dominating the game on hard court and grass like he was ? Will Rafa manage to solve the dilemma of big guys that seem to get through him so easly ? And if by doing so the clay will remain his territory ? I think to this point : we can not really say that Soderling or Del Potro are rising stars, they still need to go the distance to perfectly prove them selvs, and yeah I do reconize to which extend the soderling del potro comparaison is not that exact...but anyway...For me that's what it is about : Federer and Rafa keeping well defended their territory...

I'm sick of hearing this "Roger gave it away" stuff. Del Potro won the match. Federer wss outgunned. Get over it.

Well I guess you can't always be right and that's the chance you take in making predictions. My analysis of the match is at http://www.ehow.com/how_5419366_understand-beat...

this is kind of similar to this year wimbeldon final : the only thing that kept Federer from loosing is his serve, which he couldn't effectivly use this time.
As for the Federer strategy : I thought he was trying to get agressiv, but he had good returns from Del Potro, which forced him to get even more agressive if he wants to win, and when that happens : either the balle hits the lines or lands out of the court, which was not really so catastrophic since, overall, the stats were so close, which doesn't change much, the key difference is the breaks : Federer could've taken advantage of few chances, but he didn't, and I think that's what he formulated so well himself...
Anyway Federer didn't play poorly, Del Potro deserves the win.
Del Potro came prepared, he played many hard-court tournements, so It' only natural if he wins.
The australian will be really interesting this year, more that ever, let's see what happens !

Although Del Potro played a wonderfull tournement and final I can't get rid of the feeling Roger gave it away in a lot of ways.

Naturally the statistics speak for themselves;
Federer hits only 13 aces and produced almost as many double faults(11),
his first serve% is only 50,
he had a negative winner-unforced error balance (as so did Del Potro),
the most suprising to me is that he got 22 break points of which he only won 5.

But the biggest mistake was the change in strategy. Allthough Del Porto did start to play better in the second set Federer started to hit hard in the hitting zone of Del Potro in stead of creating sharp angles and low sliceballs. This, combined with the overall disapointing (compared with Federer's absurd "standard") quality of his game, and the fact that Federer wasn't able to win at important moments set the door wide open for Del Porto.

On the other hand, I've got to give Del Potro the credits for walking really effective and consistent through this door and didn't crash his had to the pole, as so many other players would have done.

Del Potro ended up winning!
But i also thought Fed was gonna win, they are both amazing players.
You would make a good coach but too bad i live in Australia

good points
I like the point about del potro having to bend down because he is a big man and might get tired. It will be different for Del potro because when he was playing nadal the ball was going up to his waist height but Federer will be getting the ball down to del potro's knees.

I am very surprised that del potro prevailed. I watched nearly the first two sets and he was playing very poorely but that is pure class to get back not only physically but mentally from that type of situation. I heard del potro saying in his press conference that he started to think bad things but he prevailed.

GOOD ON HIM! If he can beat the guy that killed Murray and Nadal, and beat Federer then he is more than deservant of this Grand slam.

I think Roger Federer is old to play at hist best game,Del potro is solid as rock he use the same strategy as Nadal diagonal ball precise shot and variable serve,and based line deffence .This is best strategy Federer will win another grand slam and then go home.

you didn't get any right winners :(

still can't believe federer lost

Incredible win by Del Potro - survives a Federer blitzkrieg and his own nerves in the first set and manages to fight his way back into the match late in the second with an incredible game at 4-5. Federer's serve may have let him down a bit once the match became a match but Del Potro played incredible tennis. His confidence really grew after the break in the second and he was much more aggressive with his shots from that point on. Federer was able to run around a lot of del Potro backhands early in the match, control play, and rip winners with his forehand. Once del Potro shook off the nerves and loosened up late in the second set, he began hitting his backhand deeper into the court with more pace and drew weaker replies from Federer more frequently. Once del Potro began to consistently hit backhands that Federer was unable to attack with his forehand, he managed set up more forehands of his own. The del Potro forehand was the biggest shot on the court and Federer's subpar serving was all Juan Martin needed to overcame the nervous start.

Roger's serves let him down this time. This could be because he is seeing a slight decline in his game, not as consistent day in and day out as he was before. He is about 8 years older than Del Potro.

epic fail. sounds like another video? )

Federer certainly didnt play his best tennis, as william said. in the last, i think fed pushes waaaay too much.

I would say Del Potro handled the shots, no?

Well, that was a pretty awesome match. I wonder whether Del Potro really improved so much, or if he was in the zone against Nadal and Federer. That second set where Del Potro came from 30-0 to break Federer and then winning the tiebreaker was the key turning point in the match. I felt like RF's first serves killed him this match, as he was missing them left and right. Regardless, Del Potro played extremely well and I felt he deserved to win.

DELPO didnt do what Will expected with federer´s slice. DELPO attacked that ball not only that he killed that ball so that was the main thing of delpo´s win

del potro, the only other men to beat roger federer in a grand slam final. a spectacular performance by delpo, a weary federer pretty much gave up his final set. at least he didnt get all emotional about losing it this time.

Wow.....Del Potro seemed to improve with every set...while fed started breaking down.
I was definat

-ly not expecting that--- (oops, first comment got cut off)

4 SETS ??? FEDERER ??? NOOOOOO¡ ¡ ¡ ¡
Vamos DEL POTRO

this has been the craziest tennis year ever !

The Will Hamilton Kiss of Death on Federer.

Looks like your guess was wrong cause its 4-2 and seems like it will go too a 5th set but you never know ;p

woot DelPo leads 3-0 he may actually ahve a chance

I pretty agree.

I'm a big fan of Del Potro and his win yesterday was certainly impressive. However, he played about as well as he possibly could, which is unlikely to happen again, Nadal played poorly, and Nadal is a particularly good matchup for him. Federer, on the other hand, matches up very well with Del Potro. Federer is a much more offensive player than Nadal, so Federer will be able to control the court better, lowering Del Potro's chances at crushing some balls and Federer is better suited to hit shots that can disrupt Del Potro's timing. In addition, Federer should get a lot of free points off the serve, unlike Nadal. Finally, as much as he has improved, Del Potro's stamina is not at the level of a Federer. If Del Potro can get it to the 5th set, I can't imagine him remaining at the top of his game.

I think Federer wins in 4 sets, and is more likely to win in 3 sets than Del Potro winning in any manner.

Yes spot on, i like how you mention that Rafa played differently to how Federer is likely too and Nadal is more vulnerable to Del Potro. This in my eyes renders his victory over a VERY below par Rafa somewhat insignificant.

Absolutly right, think you did grasp the whole dynamique of it, don't see how Del Potro is ready to win against Federer, unless of course he's at his 110% and RF at 60%, which is unlikely to happen, but who know !
I hope that you will do some video's on how do you think Nadal is going to adapte his game facing those big guys out there, on how Federer is going to confirm his strategy against rafa, well that's it thanks for the video again and let's hope that RF gives us a great spectacle like yesterday's !

Got this under the wire! Neat.

I agree. A lot of people are using DelPo's win over Nadal to make the case that he'll beat Roger, but I think it's a matter of match ups like you said. Roger in 3 or 4.