Every US Open championship run is memorable. After all, the courts of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center are professional tennis’ ultimate proving grounds. To win here, you need the whole package: intelligence, desire, stamina and courage. You need to own every shot in the book, and when that’s not enough, you need to be ready to write a new chapter or two.
But since the dawn of Open tennis in 1968, some of those championship runs have been particularly memorable and especially impressive. Some have been unexpected; some have included particularly large hurdles. Some have taken an extra degree of toughness and a double shot of tenacity.
Throughout the summer, as we make our way toward new memories at the 2021 US Open, tennis historian Steve Flink, himself enshrined in the International Tennis Hall of Fame, will be recounting some of the most notable, improbable, and particularly memorable championship runs in US Open history. In this installment, he looks at Juan Martin Del Potro’s stunning 2009 championship.
Over the course of a stellar 2009 season, Argentina’s towering Juan Martin del Potro demonstrated time and again how swiftly he was moving up the sport’s ladder, how much he cared about his craft, and how determined he was to show the world of tennis that he belonged among the elite. At the start of that campaign, del Potro made it to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, but was obliterated, 6-3, 6-0, 6-0, by Roger Federer. Slightly more than four months later, del Potro took on the Swiss Maestro again in a semifinal showdown at Roland Garros, and this time he fared much better. The 6-foot-6 gladiator was ahead two sets to one against Federer, and it took all of Federer’s match playing acumen, tactical wizardry and vast experience on the premier stages to turn that match around.
Federer was victorious in five sets, but del Potro was growing into his considerable talent even more rapidly than he might have imagined. Across the hard court summer, he was a central figure. Del Potro took the ATP 500 title in Washington with a final set tiebreak triumph over Andy Roddick, and then went to the final of Montreal before losing to Andy Murray.
And so the big man arrived in New York with deep resolve, considerable confidence and a sense of self he had never known before. To be sure, he was not the favorite. He was seeded sixth, but on form his chances of claiming the title were much better than that. His fellow players feared del Potro’s supreme backcourt potency, particularly his incomparably explosive forehand that was the cornerstone of his game. Given the way he had played over the summer—and the reputation he had built over the season as a front-line competitor—del Potro was surely among the top four candidates on every expert’s list to win the US Open. Only Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic looked more likely to succeed than the formidable Argentine.
Clearly, Federer appeared to be the hardest hurdle for del Potro. Not only had he knocked out his adversary in the first two majors of 2009, but he had not yet lost to the Argentine. Federer was ahead 6-0 in his career head-to-head series against del Potro. Moreover, Federer was striving for a sixth US Open title in a row and his third major in succession after claiming his first crown at Roland Garros and his sixth at Wimbledon.
Both Federer and del Potro were convincing on their way to a final round meeting at Flushing Meadows. Federer dropped the opening set to Lleyton Hewitt in the third round but rallied for a four-set win over the man he had vanquished in the 2004 final. In the quarterfinals, the Swiss confronted Sweden’s Robin Soderling in a rematch of the French Open final played three months earlier. At Roland Garros, Federer had romped in straight sets but in their US Open encounter he was pushed to 7-6 in the fourth set. But then he ousted Novak Djokovic, 7-6, 7-5, 7-5, in the semifinals, performing close to the height of his powers.
Del Potro also conceded only two sets in his six contests on his way to the title round. Daniel Koellerer took the Argentine to four sets in the third round and then Marin Cilic—destined to secure the US Open crown five years later—won the first set from del Potro in the quarterfinals before losing the last three. In the semifinals, del Potro crushed Nadal, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2, with an awesome display of power from the backcourt.
And so both players were primed for their final round appointment. The fact remained that Federer seemed highly likely to succeed on the fast hard courts in Arthur Ashe Stadium against a rival who had never beaten him. He was carrying himself like a player who liked his chances. There was a growing feeling around the grounds that del Potro could threaten the favorite but not beat him across the best of five sets.
Nothing in the early stages of the battle dispelled that notion. Federer was controlling the tempo with supreme ball striking off the forehand, serving of the highest order, surgically sliced backhands and brilliance at the net that always kept del Potro ill at ease and off balance. Federer was looking unmistakably like the master of his craft. He was unassailable. For quite some time, del Potro was unable to impose himself. In many ways he seemed to be a spectator at his own match as Federer flowed effortlessly through every facet of the game.
Federer took the first set comfortably and then served for the second set at 5-4, moving to 30-0 in the 10th game. A two-set lead for the Swiss seemed inevitable. But he surprisingly missed a routine sliced backhand and then released a drop shot that del Potro read easily. The Argentine lobbed over Federer and provoked an errant lob from the retreating Swiss. That made it 30-30. On the next two points, del Potro unleashed a pair of dazzling forehand winners to break back improbably for 5-5. That game altered the complexion of the match sweepingly and gave del Potro an inner belief that had been lacking.
The second set was settled in a tiebreak. Del Potro opened up a 6-3 lead, lost the next two points but prevailed 7-5 in that sequence by exploiting his signature shot, rifling an inside-out forehand into the clear. It was one set all.
When del Potro broke Federer in the seventh game of the third set to establish a 4-3 lead, he seemed likely to secure a two sets to one lead. But he proceeded to drop three games in a row, remarkably losing his serve twice in that span. Serving at 4-5, 30-30 to stay in the set, the Argentine double-faulted consecutively. Those self-inflicted wounds put del Potro down two sets to one as he fell into a serious bind.
Once more in the fourth set, del Potro asserted himself forcefully to move out in front 4-2—only to concede three games in a row. Del Potro was two points from defeat when he served at 4-5, 15-30, but a service winner, an ace and a thundering forehand into the clear lifted del Potro back to 5-5. Both men held on to set up another critical tiebreak, which del Potro could not afford to lose.
Federer opened the sequence with a double fault, and that proved fatal. Del Potro did not drop a point on his own serve and he prevailed seven points to four. With del Potro serving at 5-4, the Swiss was apprehensive, making back-to-back errors off the forehand. It was two sets all, and a fifth set would decide the outcome. Federer seemed somewhat perturbed by a significant portion of the audience cheering on his opponent unabashedly, while del Potro was fueled immensely by the effusive fans.
The early stages of that fifth set were crucial as del Potro surged to 2-0 at the cost of only three points, and then fended off a break point in the third game as he served into the wind, holding on gamely for 3-0. Del Potro served magnificently on his way to 5-2 before closing out the encounter with one last service break against a battle weary Federer. Victory went to del Potro, 3-6, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-2. Del Potro poured in 65% of his first serves while Federer was at only 50%. That might have been the determining factor in the match. In turn, del Potro’s forehand down the stretch was unanswerable as he laced supersonically time and again for spectacular winners that left Federer helpless and stranded.
"It was so difficult to keep trying to fight. But the crowd and the fans helped me a lot until the last point.” -- Juan Marin del Potro
Thus Del Potro became only the second man from his country to capture the US Open, following in the footsteps of 1977 champion Guillermo Vilas. The year before at Wimbledon, Federer had lost his bid for a sixth crown in a row after being two points from victory in the fifth set against Nadal. Now he had fallen narrowly short in his valiant attempt for a sixth straight US Open in another five-set showdown as del Potro refused to surrender after Federer was again two points away from a rousing triumph.
In the end, del Potro may have been saved from his sometimes-gloomy outlook by the fervor of the fans. Seldom in his career has Federer performed for an audience like that one in New York. They propelled del Potro when he needed their support the most. Federer’s fan base did not disappear, but the del Potro followers were loud, loyal and unrelenting.
As del Potro said afterwards, “When I won the second set, I am thinking if I continue to play the same way I maybe have a chance to win. But after I lost the third set after getting the break, I start to think bad things. It was so difficult to keep trying to fight. But the crowd and the fans helped me a lot until the last point.”
Del Potro added, “I just want to live this moment. Of course I will be in the history of tennis. That’s amazing for me. I have new opportunities in the other Grand Slams to win because if I did it here beating Nadal and Federer and other good players, maybe I can do it once more time.”
Those words are particularly poignant now in light of how unlucky del Potro has been ever since. To be sure, he did return to the final of the US Open in 2018, losing to Djokovic. He has made other remarkable runs elsewhere and continued sporadically to inspire the galleries with his singularly explosive game, gentle charm and distinctive personality. But injuries have been his biggest opponent, and this man who seemed destined in 2009 to collect many more major prizes will almost surely never win one again.
That is a sad reality for del Potro and a cruel blow to those who have always relished observing the popular Argentine when he is in full flow. But the fact remains that he will forever cherish the way he outperformed Roger Federer on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court in the summer of 2009 to secure the US Open title and turn himself into a towering historical figure in the world of tennis.
