No Federer vs. Nadal; del Potro scores upset
No shot for first U.S. Open clash of titans
NEW YORK — So much for the first U.S. Open matchup between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Federer failed to live up to his end of the bargain.
Hours after Nadal did his part with an easy victory at Flushing Meadows, Federer was unable to join him for what would have been the most-anticipated showdown of the entire two weeks, wasting chances to take control and missing makable shots in a 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (8), 6-4 loss to 2009 champion Juan Martin del Potro on Wednesday night.
Federer entered the quarterfinals with an 18-0 Grand Slam record this season, including titles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon to raise his record count to 19 major championships.
But he tweaked his back at a tournament last month, curtailing his preparation for the U.S. Open, and he was not quite at his best for stretches. He needed five sets to win each of his first two matches — and Wednesday, he succumbed to the same formula of massive forehands and booming serves that del Potro used when he upset Federer in the final eight years ago.
Before the tournament began, Nadal was honest as can be when asked whether he hoped to face Federer at the only Grand Slam tournament where they’ve never met.
The answer, the No. 1-seeded Nadal said earnestly, was no — because he’d rather go up against someone easier to beat.
Well, as it turns out, he’ll go up against del Potro, when the other semifinal features two men who have never been this far at any major: No. 12 Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain vs. No. 28 Kevin Anderson of South Africa.
Nadal, who has won two of his 15 Grand Slam trophies in New York, overwhelmed 19-year-old Russian Andrey Rublev 6-1, 6-2, 6-2, then had to wait hours to see what Federer would do under the lights.
Arthur Ashe Stadium was packed, and both men had loud groups of supporters. Federer’s fans would cheer for del Potro’s faults, considered bad etiquette in tennis. Del Potro’s faction would break into raucous, soccer-style songs of “Ole, ole, ole, ole! Del-po! Del-po!”
“Well, I think it’s my home court, too,” del Potro said.
The 2-hour, 51-minute Stephens, Keys and Vandeweghe will be trying to reach their first career Grand Slam final. The Americans hadn’t had all four semifinalists at the U.S. Open since 1981, when Tracy Austin beat Martina Navratilova for the title. Chris Evert and Barbara Potter also made the semifinals.
Stat of the day
Number of Spanish men (Rafael Nadal, Pablo Carreno Busta) in the semifinals, the first time that’s happened at the U.S. Open.
Quote of the day
“There was a lot of opportunities out there today. I missed a lot of them, which was a pity.” — Roger Federer, on his quarterfinal loss.
contest was filled with some sublime shotmaking by each player, and some real moments of shakiness for Federer, 36,whose forehand in particular was problematic. The turning point was the third-set tiebreaker, which Federer was a single point from winning on four occasions.
At 6-4, del Potro hammered a good return that caught Federer off-guard, resulting in a forehand into the net. At 6-5, del Potro delivered a service winner. At 7-6 — set up by a double-fault from del Potro — Federer missed a backhand, and his wife, Mirka, put her hands to her temples, before standing to offer encouragement. At 8-7, Federer’s fourth and last set point, del Potro hit a huge forehand winner.
That began a run of three points in a row for del Potro to claim that set, the last when Federer pushed a backhand volley long.
The suspense in the fourth set was brief: At 2-all, Federer dumped an overhead into the bottom of the net to gift a third break point of the game, which del Potro converted with a stinging cross-court backhand return winner to nose ahead for good.
If you haven’t already read it, our Nfl/raiders preview special section appears in this edition of the Review-journal. You’ll find it near what we call the “preprints” in front of the Life section.
Michael Gehlken’s profile of Raiders coach Jack Del Rio leads the section. You’ll also see:
■ An update on the Raiders stadium in Las Vegas.
■ Our annual listing of bars for watching NFL teams.
■ Regular-season schedule for all 32 teams.
■ Betting trends from Todd Dewey.
■ Previews of all eight divisions.
NFL bars goes live on our website.
Aside from the version in our Raiders/nfl preview section, our listings of NFL team-related bars is again on our website.
Just like in the print edition, you’ll find the listings, but sortable by teams and areas in the valley.
Ifyouwanttoaddabar, send the information to sports producer Kira Terry (kterry@ reviewjournal.com).
Until then, check out this year’s listings at Reviewjournal. com/nflbars.
We redesigned our web pages in April. We made it more visual-driven with bigger bolder photos.
Now, we’re kicking it up another notch for coverage of our local teams.
Beginning this week, we launched expanded statistics and information for our Raiders and UNLV football pages.
Go to Reviewjournal.com/ Sports, click on any of those pages and you will find links to team rosters, results, stats and league standings. Plus, click on the current game of the scrolling Raiders or UNLV schedules and you’ll be able to read about a statistic preview of that game.
Find our expanded stats at: Raiders: Reviewjournal.com/ Raiders.
UNLV football: Reviewjournal.com/unlv.