US Open

Weeks before the 2009 US Open started, people started predicting who would become the champion. The most popular pick was the five time defending champion and fifteen time grand-slam winner Roger Federer. Nadal, although always a threat, wasn't really considered, this was because of his long term knee problems and more recent abdomen strains. Because of these problems he has pulled out of several tournaments (including Wimbledon) and hasn't had much recent world class match experience.

Murray was probably the second favourite and has being playing great tennis all year. The American Andy Roddick got to the Wimbledon finals and with the advantage of a home crowd and low bouncing fast hard courts, that should suit his powerful style of play and he was considered to be in with a chance. But it was none of the above who won, instead it was the twenty year old Argentinean who beat Federer in the five sets in the final. Here is how it happened!

Federer sailed through the earlier stages without any problems. In the semi-finals Federer beat the world number 4 Novak Djokovic in straight sets. In this match he hit what he said was his "greatest ever shot". Muarry lost in the quarter finals to Marian Cilic (Cilic would then lose to Del Potro), he didn't play his best and said after the match that he had a wrist injury. In the second semi-final Del Potro beat Nadal 6-2 6-2 6-2. It was one of Nadal's worst defeats in a grand slam tournament. He didn't play badly but he was just couldn't return Del Potro's powerful serve and forehands. At no point during the match did he look like he could win. But considering his injures get to the semifinals wasn't a bad achievement.

  

So what happened in the Final, how did someone who had the experience of being in twenty one finals lose to someone who was playing in his first? In the first set Federer got off to a good start. He broke Del Potro's serve twice. Del Potro seemed nervous and made a lot of mistakes. In the second set Federer broke serve again and was serving for a two set lead but he lost the game and then lost the set. He played well again in the third set and won it 6-4. But he would lose the fourth set despite being two points away from winning the championship. He would then fall apart in the final set. There are two reasons why he lost. The first is that he didn't serve as as well as he could have, he missed too many of his first serves. The second reason is that instead of hitting the ball into Del Potro's body he hit a few feet away. Which meant that Del Potro was able to consistently hit his forehands  at around one hundred miles an hour (he hit one at a hundred and thirteen!).  Del Potro has worked very hard on and off the tennis court all year and fully deserves winning the tournament.  He is only twenty and is steadily improving so who knows how many he is going to win. As for Federer it's been a great year for him and he said afterwards that he is tired, and isn't going to be too disappointed with the loss.

Although I was only planning to write about grand slam matches I will probably write something about the world tour finals which will be held in London in November.

See you then!