Del-po blows away Federer
SO much for the first US Open meeting between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
The Swiss failed to live up to his end of the bargain.
Hours after Nadal did his part with an easy-as-can-be victory to reach the semi-finals at Flushing Meadows, Federer was unable to join him.
He wasted chances to take control and made 41 unforced errors in a 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (10-8), 6-4 loss to 2009 champion Juan Martin del Potro yesterday.
“I think I played my best match of the tournament, I did everything well,” the 24th-seeded Argentine said.
“I served so good, I hit my forehand as hard as I could and I think we played a great match and I think I deserved to win.”
Del Potro will face Nadal in the final four tomorrow with the winner to go into Monday’s final a heavy favourite against the victor of the semifinal between 12th seed Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain and 28th seed Kevin Anderson of South Africa.
Nadal, a two-time winner in New York, overwhelmed 19-year-old Russian Andrey Rublev 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.
Arthur Ashe Stadium was packed for the later match, Del Potro’s supporters breaking into raucous, soccerstyle songs of “Ole, ole, ole, ole! Delpo! Del-po!”
“I think it’s my home court, too, you make me feel happy every time I play here and I love your support guys. I love to see you cheer for me,” he said in an on- court interview.
The turning point in the near three-hour contest was the third-set tiebreaker, in which Federer failed to win despite four set points.
Nadal, meanwhile, strolled past the 53rd-ranked Rublev, who did not put up much of a fight.
“It was a good match and obviously it was Andrey’s first quarter-finals and, of course, he played with some more mistakes than usual, but for me it was an important victory winning the last two matches in straight sets,” Nadal said.
In the women’s quarter-finals, 15th-seeded Madison Keys completed an all-American line-up in the final four with a dominating 6-3, 6-3 victory over 418th-ranked qualifier Kaia Kanepi, of Estonia, in only 69 minutes yesterday.
Earlier, No. 20 CoCo Vandeweghe knocked off top-seeded Karolina Pliskova 7-6 (4), 6-3.
Keys and Vandeweghe will meet today to determine which reaches her first grand slam final.
Venus Williams and Sloane Stephens set up their all-US semi-final with victories on Wednesday.
It is the first time since 1981 that all four women’s semi-finalists in New York are from the host country.