(Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images for ATP Tour)
Tennis, like most sports, is a continually evolving game. Wilander ruined serve and volley with his consistency and mental brilliance. The power of Lendl and Sampras took it from there. Hewitt's neutralizing counterpunching grabbed the reigns after that. Then came Roger, the all around expert. It took a special breed of super strong, super fast competitors a la Nadal, Djokovic, and Murray to steal some of the limelight. But even they are having trouble wrangling the crown from the almighty Federer. Perhaps their evolution isn't quite drastic enough.
Enter Juan Martin Del Potro.
At a towering 6'6", he is the tallest man to ever win a grand slam. That is saying a lot considering his style of play. Think tall champions of the past. Goran had arguably the best serve in the game of tennis. Unfortunately his inability to support that weapon with anything else kept him from winning more than a single major. Safin was the closest thing we had to the next step. Fortunately for today's champions, Marat's mental instability has extinguished the bright flame of potential he once had. Del Potro could easily outshine them both.
Juan Martin is rare breed that combines agility, consistency, and tactics with his extreme size and power. In my eyes, his greatest strength is hitting giant winners from further back more consistently than anyone else so far. It allows him to go from defense (which he is surprisingly skilled at) to offense on a whim without even changing court positioning. He's having his cake and eating it too. While this is a huge asset, he's shown its not what he relies on all of the time. Against Rafael Nadal in the semis of the US Open, Del Potro stood firm on the baseline and took Nadal's high bouncing-spin on the rise like it was nothing. That takes serious timing. And oh yeah - he can crack his serve over 140mph. Something tells me he will improve this number as well. We may soon see the first man in history to hit over 160mph.
If Juan Martin Del Potro continues to improve he could very well put an end to the Roger-Rafa battle for number one by simply stepping over both of them like a bouncer breaking up a bar fight.
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