Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina returns the ball during the men's singles final match against Nikolay Davydenko of Russia during the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena on November 29, 2009 in London, England.
Call Juan Martin del Potro the X factor for the upcoming U.S. Open.
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He's the defending champ, and the guy who first demonstrated that if you play a sufficiently big, physical game, you can take down the Roger Federers and Rafael Nadals of this world (Robin Soderling and Tomas Berdych clearly were paying attention).
As few as two weeks ago, del Potro's prospects for playing at Flushing Meadows looked dim. But now, the news out of Argentina is that del Potro has recovered from the surgery on his right wrist, is hitting tennis balls and is on track to defend his title in late August.
That ought to give the top contenders the heebie-jeebies.
When del Potro manhandled Federer in the final of the U.S. Open last September, it seemed like an epoch-ending match. For the first time in a big match on a surface other than clay, Federer met a man who could play him on Federer's terms and still win. It was no one-off performance, either. In the two previous rounds, del Potro had knocked off Marin Cilic and Nadal.
And del Potro backed up that inspired U.S. Open triumph. In the ensuing weeks and months, he beat Federer again and put up a good win over hard-charging Soderling. His year-end head-to-heads looked like this:
Vs. Federer: 2-0 in the latter half of '09, despite trailing 0-6 after his loss to Federer at Roland Garros in the spring.
Vs. Nadal: 3-0 in '09 after Indian Wells, where his record slipped to 0-4.
Vs. Andy Murray: 1-5, with two losses to Murray on hard courts in the summer. Del Potro's crafted his lone win over Murray in Madrid (on clay) in the spring.
Vs. Novak Djokovic: 0-3 -- but no matches after Rome.
Vs. Andy Roddick: 2-0 in '09 and 3-0 in his career in two finals and one semi.
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SOURCE: ESPN
Peter Bodo
