U.S. Open 2009: Del Potro With an Opening?

After pretty the demolition of Ferraro to reach the quarter-finals of the U.S. Open (6-3, 6-3, 6-3), Mr. Del Potro has a real opportunity here to reach the semis and I'm eyeing him in the finals.

Are you a mad man you say? No, and here's why...
Del Potro's biggest knock is his ability to play at the same level throughout a tournament due to fatigue. We saw that in Toronto, and we'll see it again in the future. He's a big man, who plays like a much smaller man in terms of agility. However, at the U.S. Open he is getting a full day to rest up the body and go back into battle 100% and fresh. This is huge for Juan Martin Del Potro, and why I'm convinced he will be a multi-major winner before all is said and done.

Del Potro has been solid in New York thus far. He has lost just one set, and otherwise hasn't really been challenged. He will be in Cilic who just throttled a clearly distracted (?) Andy Murray, but I'm not convinced that Del Potro shouldn't lose more than a set here and advance into potentially Nadal territory. Cilic is seeking that big break-out too, but he's in uncharted waters at this point, and may (may) have a slight Murray-Hangover. In any event, I see Del Potro's game being too big on the hard stuff for Cilic right now.

Back to this Nadal comment...Let's presume that Nadal does make it into the semis. In order for this returning Spaniard to do that he's going to have to beat crowd favorite Monfils, and then Tsonga or Gonzalez. I expect Monfils to give Rafa all kinds of problems tonight, and should he advance, I'd actually give the edge to Tsonga who's playing great, or a split call should Gonzalez advance. It's not going to be easy for any of those other four players to survive to meet Del Potro, which could play right into the Argentines hands for the run into the final.

Is this all magically going to happen as I just suggested, it could, but maybe it won't. But that's the beauty of sport in general. Speculate all we want, we don't really know what is going to happen when we get the mega-elite playing one another (perhaps excluding Federer).

I do know that the remaining matches tonight, and the upcoming quarterfinals should be awesome. I'm even looking forward to Soderling-Federer, and while I thoroughly expect Federer to hand it to Soderling again, Robin is a player that will surprise you when you've really written him off.

Should be fun!
MarkOskar