He kept it in play, and let Del Potro make the error and hit it  out. I call that passive-aggression. While not playing scared or afraid, you are showing hidden aggression and concealed assertiveness.  You’re dictating the outcome of the match without having to do too much and take too many risks. You’re letting your partner do that. And that’s what happened, Del Potro began to spray.

While the scoreboard would read 6-3 in favor of Federer with only one serve break, a forgettable serve percentage of just 41% and a break point  conversion percentage of only 11 make him look a little out of sorts, but Roger played the some of the best strategic tennis he’s ever played.

He used the big serve whenever in trouble in tribute to good old Pete. He used sliced forehands and backhands to mix up the speed of play, making his 6′6″ opponent bend low for balls.

He used dropshots effortlessly to make the giant run forward, a far more daunting task than side-to-side. And perhaps most importantly, he knew the focal point of his attack,  to go out wide to the Del Potro forehand, pulling him off the court on several situations to force the error from the Argentine’s more volatile side.

In the 3rd set, Del Potro really started to catch on. He started using his head more. He really opened up the court when his thunderous ground strokes even more so and they started to find their way deep into the baseline corners, making best friends with the edge of the single sidelines. Yes, the big man was nailing everything. And if that didn’t put the Federer Express in enough trouble, it got worse.

At the very same time when the giant got hot, R-Fed had abonded the strategy that worked so brilliantly for him in the first set.  So, the mometum snow balled into the 5th and final set.

The sixth-seeded Argentine took the term “playing to his strengths” up to another level. By doing this, he continously pinned Federer back behind the baseline with deep, flat powerful forehands shots – keeping federer on the defense and elminating any chance he had to control many of the points.

Then the 20 year old even got smarter. He didn’t only use one weapon.  He began to mix things up, and that’s what started giving Federer fits.  Once Federer appeared to get used to the blistering pace, he started alternating firt serve speeds. For example, at times he would throw a series of serves in the low 90s at Roger going for more placement, then suprise his opponent out of nowhere  with a screamer knocking on the door at a scary 140 mph!

That’s right, this kept him unpredictable, and Federer couldn’t establish any type of rhythm from that point forward. He didn’t know how to prepare from one point to the next. And when you don’t have a good center or a good level of balance, you’re pretty much cooked.

And yes, you guessed it. Roger got a 5th set with all the fixings, and that was the end of it.

US Open Finals: Juan Martin del Potro def Roger Federer

Juan Martin del Potro (6)         3     7     4     7     6
Roger Federer (1)         6     6     6     6     2

Great Job using your noggin Juan Martin!

Brian Hall
TennisMindCamp

P.S. Congratulations Marlee for Winning The US Open Photo Challenge!