He September 14, 2009 It is a historic date for Argentine tennis. That day a young man Juan Martín del Potro defeated Swiss Roger Federer in five sets, who was going for his sixth title in a row at the US Open, and became the fifth Argentine to win a Grand Slam title.
Del Potro had already been warning that it was a matter of time before he was the protagonist in a Grand Slam tournament. At the Australian Open that year he reached the quarterfinals, while at Roland Garros he reached the semis, losing both times to Federer.
On his way to the final, Delpo beat Juan Mónaco, Jurgen Melzer, Daniel Koellerer, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Marin Cilic and Rafael Nadalcrushing the latter with a resounding triple 6-2 and losing only two sets in the previous matches.
On the other side came ‘His Majesty’ Roger Federer, who had just reached the final in Australia and won Roland Garros and Wimbledon.which allowed him to regain world number 1 and become the player with the most Grand Slam titles in history (15 up to that point).
The outlook could not be more negative for del Potro, who was 6-0 down in history and he had barely stolen two sets in all those matches from the Swiss.
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The match started as expected. In the first set Federer overtook him and won 6-3. In the second everything seemed to be going the same way, but when the Swiss led 5-4 came del Potro’s reactionwho was able to recover the break and take the matter to the tie-break, where he showed his best level and tied the match.
With the emotional boost of winning such a set, The Argentine started with a break in the third, but he had a few minutes of deconcentration and the Swiss was not only able to recover it but got another one to go up 2 sets to 1.
The fourth set was worthy of a thriller. Del Potro was only two points away from losing when he served 4-5, but there he once again brought out the power of his blows and forced the Swiss to play a new tie-break, where he once again managed to tie the score.
What no one was going to imagine in the quinto set It was him domain of Juan Martín del Potro. He quickly got a break, went 5-2 and in the eighth game he got the break that allowed him to win the first and only Grand Slam of his career. This victory meant end of a streak of 41 consecutive victories by Federer at the US Open, who also had five titles in a row there.
Beating Federer at the US Open: an impossible mission, especially for del Potro.
This title made del Potro the fifth Argentine to win a Grand Slamafter Guillermo Vilas, Gabriela Sabatini, Paola Suárez and Gastón Gaudio did it (later Gisela Dulko would join).
That September 14, 2009, on a New York night illuminated by flashes, La Torre de Tandil touched the sky with its hands.
The memory of del Potro on his social networks
2023-09-14 14:46:59
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