After rehabbing his elbow for the second half of 2017, it still wasn’t 100% when Novak Djokovic was upset in Australia by Hyeon Chung. Novak then underwent a procedure to repair his elbow, but came back too soon, going 0-2 in embarrassing efforts at Indian Wells and Miami. It was at that time that Djokovic parted his ways with his coaching team of Andre Agassi and Radek Stepanek, and brought much of his old team back, headed by Marian Vajda. Shortly after, his results started to turn around. It’s hard to believe it was only four months ago that he was 6-6 on the year. It was his semifinal appearance in Rome where he played his best tennis in some time despite going down in defeat to Rafael Nadal. Roland Garros was a setback, as he suffered a shocking upset to Marco Cecchinato. He also let a match point slip through his hands in the final at Queen’s Club. But everything finally clicked at Wimbledon, where he outlasted Rafael Nadal in an epic semifinal, and won his first Major in over two years. Djokovic then won his second title of the year by taking out Seven-Time Champion Roger Federer in Cincinnati, and is now into his second consecutive Major final.
New York has been the home of many milestones in Juan Martin Del Potro’s career. 10 years ago, he made his first Major quarterfinal at the US Open. Of course one year later, he won his first Major title. It was assumed to be the first of many, but multiple wrist surgeries forced Del Potro to miss several years of his career. After bring absent from the 2014 and 2015 US Open events, he returned to a Major quarterfinal at the 2016 Open, his first in over three years. Last year, he took it one step further and made the semis. That run was highlighted by his unbelievable and electric comeback from two sets down against Dominic Thiem, in a match where he was close to retiring while suffering from a virus. And now, New York is the place where he’s finally back in a final at a Grand Slam event, for the first time since his 2009 title.
Novak Djokovic vs. Juan Martin Del Potro
Just like his rivalry with Rafael Nadal, Del Potro’s last victory over Djokovic came at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Juan Martin took out Novak in a highly-emotional first round match, four years after he had beaten Djokovic to win a bronze medal at the London Olympics. Also just like Del Potro’s head-to-head with Nadal, Djokovic has won all three matches against Juan Martin since the Rio Olympics. Overall Djokovic has a 14-4 records against Del Potro, with Juan Martin’s only non-Olympic victories coming in a 2011 Davis Cup tie, and the 2013 Indian Wells Masters 1,000 event. They’ve played twice before at the US Open, with Novak winning both times in straight sets. Their most notable match at a Major was their near five-hour semifinal at Wimbledon in 2013. While Djokovic prevailed, he didn’t have enough left in his loss to Andy Murray in the final.
Unlike recent years where Del Potro was exhausted by the second week of Majors, he comes into this match with a lot left in his tank. At a career-high ranking of No.3, he’s avoiding other top seeds during the first week, and only dropped one set during this fortnight. He also benefitted from Nadal’s retirement after two sets of their semifinal. Del Potro has spent 14 hours and 16 minutes on court in his previous six matches. Djokovic has only spent about one hour more on court, but he suffered much more from the hot and humid conditions. The good news for Novak is none of his six matches went longer than three hours, and he also easily won his semifinal, against Kei Nishikori.
The crowd could play a huge role in this match. Del Potro will have his vocal Argentine support, but he’ll also be the sentimental favorite amongst the majority of the crowd. And Djokovic has never fully had the New York audience on his side, something we’ve seen him become frustrated with many times over the years, including several times in this tournament. Into his eighth US Open final, Novak is only 2-5 at this stage. Djokovic has clearly returned to being the best player in the world this summer, though Del Potro was the best player in the world during the North American hard court season earlier this year. He won his first Masters 1,000 title at Indian Wells in March, on the heels of his victory in Acapulco where he took out three top 10 players.
The men’s semifinals on Friday were a letdown in quality, but I suspect this final will not disappoint. Whenever these two have squared off before on a big occasion, their matches have been excellent. A Djokovic victory would be historic, though a Del Potro victory would be one of the most popular and heart-warming moments in recent memory. As far as picking a winner, my head says Djokovic, but my heart says Del Potro. I’m sure the majority of the tennis world would agree.
