Del Potro overcomes early struggles to advance at US Open
Juan Martin del Potro’s stay at the U.S. Open really should be over. It nearly was.
The 2009 champion at Flushing Meadows had a fever and thought about quitting while dropping the opening two sets with little resistance against No. 6-seeded Dominic Thiem in the fourth round Monday. Then he trailed by a big margin in the fourth set, even facing two match points.
Juan Martin del Potro channels his inner Michael Jordan, and Madison Keys’ latenight victory makes it four American women advancing to the quarterfinals.
Still, buoyed by a boisterous grandstand crowd chanting “Ole!” and his nickname, “del Potro,” he never gave in or gave up. Eventually, del Potro worked all the way back on the strength of powerful serves and thunderous forehands to edge Thiem 1-6, 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (1), 6-4 and set up a quarterfinal showdown against Roger Federer.
“I took all that energy to change in a good way and think about [fighting] and not [retiring],” the 24thseeded Argentine said. “Unbelievable atmosphere.”
Del Potro long has been popular, but he became even more so since his return from three operations on his left wrist that kept him out of Grand Slam action for two years and sent his ranking out of the top 100.
“He was gone for so long that it’s just really nice to see him back playing these kind of matches,” Federer said. “That’s what he came back for: to get crowd support the way he got it.”