Juan Martin Del Potro Wins U.S. Open
15 September 2009
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Despite a nervous start Juan Martin Del Potro brought Roger Federer's five year reign at the U.S. Open to an end last night as he won his first Grand Slam title.
The twenty year old Argentinean was playing in his first Grand Slam final, after narrowly missing out on a spot in the French Open final earlier in the year, compared to Roger Federer who was going for his sixteenth major win.
Del Potro now becomes only the second man, after Rafael Nadal, to beat Federer in a Grand Slam final as he ended the world number one's run of forty match unbeaten run at Flushing Meadows.
The Argentinean enjoyed an emphatic win over Rafael Nadal the day before and the effects of that win looked to be taking their toll on the twenty year old in the early part of the match.
He struggled with his serve in the opening set and Federer broke him in his opening service game and from then on it was Federer all the way as he wrapped up the first set 6-3.
It wasn't until the tenth games that Del Potro finally got a break point, by this point Federer had eleven break point opportunities, but was unable to take advantage of his chances.
At 5-4 up Federer was serving for a two set lead and it looked all over. But Del Potro battled back to finally break and the set was back on serve.
Into the tie break and Del Potro was growing in confidence with every strike of the ball and he was hitting as well as he had done the previous day.
Digging deep Del Potro took the tie break 7-5 to level the match. Into the third and Federer was beginning to struggle with the power behind Del Potro's shots and they were locked together at 4-4.
But Del Potro's mind seemed to wander in the tenth game when two double faults in a role handed Federer the third set and a 2-1 lead.
Del Potro faced break points early in the fourth set but battled back to hold on before breaking Federer to lead 3-2. But this lead didn't last long as Federer broke back to once again lock them together at 4-4.
Towards the end of the fourth set Federer was just two points for a sixth successive U.S. Open win but Del Potro wasn't finished and battled back to force yet another tie break.
Errors began creeping into the Federer game and two missed forehands allowed Del Potro to level the match at two sets all.
But Del Potro showed no sign of nerves as he broke the defending champion to lead 2-0 before Federer missed his chance to break back and get back on serve.
Juan Martin Del Potro sealed the win 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 and becomes only the second man after Novak Djokovic to break the stronghold Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have had on the Grand Slams in recent years.
Speaking to the BBC after the match Del Potro said: "I had two dreams this week. One was to win the US Open and the other one is to be like Roger.
"One is done, but I need to improve a lot to be like you. You fought until the final point. You are a great champion. I'm very happy to be here with this crown, with these people, on this court. This will be in my mind forever."
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