Del Potro Stops Federer in Five Sets and Wins Open
The saga of Roger Federer’s most fascinating Grand Slam season produced a surprise ending on Monday night when he was caught from behind by Juan Martín del Potro, the huge-hitting 20-year-old Argentine, in the United States Open final.
Del Potro’s 3-6, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2 victory put an end to Federer’s extended run of invincibility at the Open, depriving him of a sixth consecutive singles title and halting the momentum he had acquired by winning the French Open and Wimbledon.
Del Potro’s victory — the first by an Argentine man in New York since Guillermo Vilas won in 1977 — required 4 hours 6 minutes and left him lying flat on his back and crying with joy as soon as Federer’s last shot, a lunging backhand, had landed long.
At 6-foot-6 and with his long arms extended, the prone del Potro took up plenty of space in the blue backcourt, just as he had in the late stages of this epic match, which featured baseline power in abundance as it became the first final in a decade to stretch to five sets.
For nearly two sets, it appeared that Federer would continue surfing the wave of his own creation. For nearly two sets, he was carving precise backhands and ripping forehands and using his unmatched panoply of tactical options to befuddle his more inexperienced opponent. Del Potro looked tight and bothered by the reality of playing his first major final in the large Arthur Ashe Stadium that had long made him dream from afar.
But in a summer when so much has gone right for Federer on both a private and a professional level, adding the perfect final touch would prove too difficult.
“I had a great one myself," Federer said of his United States Open. “But he was the best. Of course I would have loved to win, but I’ve had an unbelievable run here. I would never have thought five or six years ago, I would win 40 matches in a row here."
Serving for a two-set lead at 5-4, he took a 30-0 lead only to suffer the indignity of losing the next four points, with del Potro benefiting from a correct challenge at 30-all that left Federer shouting, “No way.” Del Potro would soon even the match at one-set apiece.
If Federer does not decide to continue playing, as planned until the 2012 Summer Olympics, the electronic line calling system might be the reason. He was against its implementation and has been one of the least effective of the top players in making use of it, and his frustration with del Potro’s repeated challenges put him in an uncharacteristically surly mood.
Late in the third set, with a 5-4 lead, Federer got into a heated exchange with the chair umpire Jake Garner, criticizing him for allowing del Potro too much time before challenging. Federer, a hothead in his youth, has been a well-mannered champion, but he used an expletive at one stage of the conversation after snapping, “Don’t tell me to be quiet, O.K.? When I want to talk, I talk.”
But Federer, unlike Serena Williams on Saturday night, did not let his frustration descend into threatening an official. Instead, he recovered his composure and won the third set only to gradually lose his edge and his title, as his consistency dipped in the final two sets and del Potro began generating gasps from the crowd of 23,000 by clubbing forehands into the corners for winners on a regular basis.
“You know what I think about Hawkeye,” Federer said, using the name of the system’s manufacturer. “It shouldn’t be there in the first place.”
It was hard not to flash back to the last match Federer and del Potro had played on a hardcourt and marvel at how quickly a 20-year-old player can scale the heights.
In that match, in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, del Potro won just three games in three sets as Federer steamrolled him, leaving the Argentine dazed and searching for his words after the match. Federer beat him again in straight sets on clay in the semifinals on his way to victory in Madrid, but he needed five sets to shake free of him in the semifinals of the French Open.
It was his sixth victory in sixth matches against del Potro, but the Argentine was clearly gaining in capacity and confidence, and now he has his first Grand Slam singles title in his first attempt: just as Federer did when he won Wimbledon in 2003 at age 22.
Just like del Potro, the joy of that breakthrough left Federer in tears.
“It’s always an amazing effort coming through and winning your first in your first final,” Federer said. “You have to give him all the credit, because it’s not an easy thing to do, especially coming out against someone like me who has so much experience.”
Federer had not lost a match at the United States Open since 2003, when he was beaten by a surlier Argentine, David Nalbandian, in the fourth round. Since then, he has swept through five editions of this tournament, beating five different opponents in the final without ever being pushed to five sets.
Along the way, he has grown into the most successful player of the Open era, establishing a new record for career Grand Slam men’s singles titles by winning his 15th at Wimbledon this year. Later that month, in July, his new wife Mirka Vavrinec gave birth to twin girls, who have been with Federer on this trip to North America.
But his latest visit to New York did not end in the usual way. The fault was partly with his serve: he put only 50 percent of his first serves into play against del Potro.
“I didn’t feel good,” he said. “I tried to correct it, but it was tricky.”
As happened at Wimbledon in 2008, Federer could not make it past five in a row at Flushing Meadows.
“Six would have been a dream, but you can’t have them all,” Federer said.
Linear Mode
