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2009 Australian Open Quarterfinal: Federer vs. Juan Martin Del Potro
When Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro took to the court in Melbourne in the opening month of 2009, the weight of certainty to uncertainty over the outcome was finely balanced.
There were many things that were certain about Del Potro. He came into the Australian Open with a win just the week before, in Auckland. His victims there included Sam Querrey and Robin Soderling; no slouches on hard courts.
Between Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2008, Del Potro had won four straight tournaments: Stuttgart, Kitzbuhel, Los Angeles, and Washington.
In the 12 months leading up to the Australian Open, his ranking had rocketed from 53 to six. And commensurate with his new-found ranking, he had made steady progress towards this quarterfinal showdown. Del Potro was young, he was big, and he was improving all the time.
Weighted against him, however, was a 3-0 head-to-head in his opponent’s favor.
Then there was the Federer balance sheet.
A fortnight before, he had lost to Andy Murray in the Doha semifinals. It was an inauspicious return to the Tour after an illness-tainted 2008. The man who had only been beaten 18 times in the previous three years put together lost 15 matches in a single year. The last two of those losses were at the round-robin stage of the year-end Masters Cup, beaten by Murray, Gilles Simon, and a crippling back.
More immediately, and of most concern, was Federer’s near loss in the previous round at Melbourne, to Tomas Berdych.
There were, this being the man who had racked up 237 consecutive weeks as world No. 1, a few ingots of gold to add to his side of the scales.
This was Federer's 23rd Grand Slam quarterfinal and his 19th in a row. The last time Federer had lost before the semifinals in any Slam was at Roland Garros in 2004. And of course, there was that 3-0 record over his opponent.
Their head-to-head may have meant little to Federer, but the record of his opponent weighed on Del Petro’s mind: “I will play the best player ever. I will just have to do my best to beat him.”
The match began normally enough, with holds of serve and the odd error off the ground. The fourth game, though, was a tussle. They played several deuces, but Federer hustled and sparkled, already showing off a fluid backhand, vicious forehand, and an eagerness to attack the net. He broke serve for the first time, which was enough to seal a fast-paced 6-3 set.
Federer was dominating the Del Potro’s power play with consummate ease. His movement was fast and assured, his footwork crisp, and his aggressive serve-and-volley tactics perfectly executed. But Del Potro had seen nothing yet.
In set two, Federer appeared to switch from everyday champion to once-in-a-lifetime champion. His racket was discarded in favor of a poison-tipped rapier, the shoes sprouted wings, and the tactical brain was swapped for a super-computer.
He broke the very first game, and to love, with a sequence of shots that encapsulated the rapid direction this match was to take.
Federer broke a second time, albeit with slightly less ease. Everything is relative, and although Del Potro scored a couple of aces and took the game to deuce, Federer stayed in command.
His tactics were clear. Federer aimed to move the bigger man back and forward, make him play low balls, and take time away from him by rushing the net.
The tactics worked a treat, and the execution was deadly. Backhands were sliced wide and acutely angled. Drop shots were stroked over the net from the back and the front of the court. Volleys were taken early and hit into open space. It was easy to see what Federer has been practising over the winter break.
In the blink of an eye, the second set was gone to love, and Del Potro looked stunned. Where had the fragile, vulnerable Federer of a dozen newspaper reports gone? Who had slipped on the dazzling blue invincibility cloak between that fourth-round match and this moonlit assault?
By the third set, Federer had taken on the characteristics of a killer whale, one of those glorious but remorseless creatures that catches its prey in the shallows and tosses it from wave to wave in preparation for the final kill.
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