In this new series on USOpen.org, we examine the tactics that led to the title. In addition to telling you what happened in the championship match, we take a closer look at the "how" and the "why." Up next: how Juan Martin del Potro figured out a way to end Roger Federer's reign.
Juan Martin del Potro won his first Grand Slam men's singles title at the 2009 US Open, defeating five-time defending champion Roger Federer in a five-set thriller.
It was a match with so many ebbs and flows, and while Federer certainly had chances to win his sixth title in a row, it was del Potro who made the biggest adjustments as the match wore on.
Federer won the first set, 6-3—he could have won it, 6-1—and he served for the second set at 5-4. If he had a 2-0 lead, the likelihood is that Federer would have won his sixth consecutive US Open. After all, he was 149-0 at majors when winning the first two sets at this point in his career.
In the third set, del Potro was actually up a break at 4-3 before losing his serve in consecutive games—the second with a set-ending double fault. Then in the fourth, the Argentine was up a break again before needing another tiebreak to level the match.
Once it got to a fifth set, del Potro had all the momentum, and he broke Federer twice to etch his name into the record books.
So just how evenly matched was the final?
- Del Potro won 51.1 percent of all points, compared with Federer’s 48.9 percent. That is a difference of just eight total points in a match that went 53 games and lasted more than four hours.
- Both players won exactly 72 percent of points on their first serve. Del Potro won 55 percent of points on his second serve, compared with Federer’s 54 percent. Notably, however, del Potro’s first-serve percentage was up at 65 percent, whereas Federer’s was at just 51 percent. That means that while del Potro won more points than Federer on his first serve, Federer won more than del Potro on his second.
- Each player broke the other five times. Del Potro also saved 17 break points, while Federer saved 10.
- Del Potro recorded 57 winners and 60 unforced errors. Federer hit 56 winners, compared with 62 errors.
- Del Potro won 68 percent of points at the net. Federer won 66 percent of all net approaches.
Here are four keys to del Potro's success:
1. Del Potro’s first-serve percentage improved throughout the match, but it was his second serve that was the difference-maker.
The Argentine saw his first-serve percentage rise throughout the match, but interestingly, his winning percentage on these points dropped. The primary reason he faced nine break points and lost the set was because he only won four of 16 points on his second serve.
- Set 1: del Potro made 54 percent of his first serves, winning 84 percent (16 of 19) of the points. He won 4 of 16 points on his second serve.
Compare this to sets four and five.
- Set 4: del Potro made 74 percent of first serves, winning 72 percent of the points. He won 7 of 11 points on his second serve.
- Set 5: del Potro made 78 percent of his first serves, winning 67 percent of the points. He won 5 of 5 points on his second serve.
So what did he do differently on his second serve?
Set 1
In the first set, del Potro hit six second serves down the ’T’ and nine more to the Federer body. Federer won all six points down the middle and six of the nine when del Potro tried to jam him. Federer returned two-thirds of the second serves from the backhand side, and all but one of these were slice returns in which Federer was getting the ball deep.
- In the first set, del Potro lost 12 of 16 points on his second serve.
Sets 4 and 5
Del Potro utilized the wide serve three times as often, and almost exclusively from the ad court, instead of serving into the body. This had the effect of drawing Federer closer to the doubles alley and making it harder for him to slice the ball back deep from out in front of him since he was reaching for the ball and chipping it back with more of a closed stance.
It also opened up the court much more for del Potro's second shot. Del Potro played 66 points on serve in the fourth and fifth sets. Of the 56 times he had to hit a second ball, almost half (26, 46 percent) were hit cross court.
- In the fourth and fifth sets (both sets that del Potro won), he won a combined 12 of 16 points on his second serve.
RELATED: Watch the full 2009 men's final on the US Open YouTube channel here.
2. Del Potro was fantastic when serving ahead
The first point of games is so important in setting the tone for what’s to come. There’s a big difference between serving at 15-0 versus 0-15, and del Potro made sure he established early leads. Consider this:
- Del Potro won 16 of his 17 service games when he won the first point. By contrast, he won only half of the eight games when he started 0-15.
In total, del Potro won 11 of 12 games when he had a 30-0 lead and all nine when he led 40-0.
Del Potro made 18 of 25 first serves on the first point of the game, and he went down the 'T’ 16 times, winning 13 points. Going big over the lowest part of the net gave him room for error and kept the ball out of Federer's hitting zone.
3. Del Potro played the big points better than Federer, but he also benefited from a little luck.
Matches are decided by fine margins, and in the biggest moments when the most was on the line, del Potro played the better tennis.
Del Potro saved at least one break point in six different games, and he came up big in the two tiebreaks that ultimately proved the difference between the two finalists.
- In the second set, Federer was two points away from a 2-0 set lead at 5-4, 30-0, but del Potro won the next four points, including a backhand lob at 30-15 and consecutive forehand winners down the line, the first of which was initially called out and confirmed in by the narrowest of margins on a challenge, and the second of which came on the run past an approaching Federer.
- In the second-set tiebreak, he landed down-the-line winners at 4-3 and 5-3 and an inside-out winner on his third set point. But earlier in the tiebreak, Federer also uncharacteristically shanked a forehand on serve at 3-3 that gave del Potro the mini break.
- In the fourth-set tiebreak, del Potro utilized his forehand to open up a 3-0 lead, and he kept Federer on the run with a backhand down the line for a 4-2 advantage. The only mini break was a Federer double fault on the first point.
4. Del Potro did more on Federer’s second serve in the fifth set
Federer certainly went off the boil in the fifth set after twice seeing leads slip away earlier in the match. The Swiss recorded just four winners to 15 miscues, but the biggest difference was how del Potro attacked the second serve.
Del Potro won nine of 13 points on Federer’s second serve, including on back-to-back points to break for 2-0 and on all four second serves he saw with Federer serving to stay in the match at 2-5.
In total, Federer missed nine first serves aimed at the ’T’ in the final set, giving del Potro plenty of looks at second serves.
Federer won almost 60 percent (46 of 78) of his second-serve points coming into the fifth set, but he was unable to keep that trend up. By contrast, del Potro won all five points on his own second serve at a time when you'd expect Federer to be on the attack.
