Two of the US Open’s Grand Slam champions and, it so happens, two of the most popular men with tennis fans around the world, Juan Martin del Potro and Stan Wawrinka, would clash for only the seventh time in their long careers.
It is a rare thing indeed for two players who have achieved the pinnacle of this sport, and who are age 27 and 31 respectively, to have met so few times, but there has been good reason.
Del Potro hit the top before he had barely moved beyond his teenage years, reached the quarter-finals at his first Major, here in New York at 19 in 2008, and went on to win the US Open the next year.
Wawrinka was a late bloomer who did not make his first Major quarter-final until 2010, nor his semi-final until 2013—both at the US Open. He went on to win his first Major the next January in Australia, just a couple of months short of his 29th birthday, and added Roland Garros to his achievements last summer.
Their first meeting was in 2006, del Potro just out of the junior ranks, and even then he took Wawrinka to three sets on the Swiss man’s way to the Umag title. By the time they met again in 2008, del Potro had won four titles from five finals while Wawrinka had yet to add to that Umag one.
The Swiss would win their second match, but it would be his last over the Argentine. Del Potro won the next year in Madrid and Rome, before going on to become the first man since 2005 to break the stranglehold of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic at Grand Slams.
No-one though, could foresee the trajectory the Argentine’s career would now take. He ended 2009 in the top five, but by May 2010, he needed wrist surgery and missed the rest of the season. In 2011, he made it back to No11, enough to earn the ATP’s Comeback Player of the Year award. The next year he won bronze at the Olympics, but his 2013 run to the Wimbledon semis would be his last appearance there before undergoing two more wrist surgeries. From the start of 2014 to the end of 2015, he played just 14 matches.
But this year, he began to show some of that old form, and beat Djokovic and Nadal on his way to the silver medal in Rio. Now ranked No142 and at the US Open with a wild card, he made the quarters via three seeds, Steve Johnson, David Ferrer, and Dominic Thiem—and that set this meeting with Wawrinka.
Wawrinka’s career had gone in the opposite direction, with titles proving elusive despite his obvious power and skill around the court. But with his confidence and ranking dipping in 2012, he determined to give it one last try.
He took on coach Magnus Norman and his tennis became more aggressive and forward-moving, his physical shape sharper, his endurance greater.
And the new model “Stan the Man” was on full show in his first full-length Grand Slam match against Djokovic, a fourth-round five-setter at the 2013 Australian Open. The defending champion survived, 12-10, in the fifth set, but it had made a point. And come their next Australia meeting, Wawrinka would beat Djokovic, 9-7 in the fifth set of another marathon, and go on to beat Nadal in the final.
He beat Federer to win his first Masters in Monte Carlo, claimed Roland Garros, qualified for the World Tour finals for the first time, joined with Federer to win the Davis Cup, and rose to No3 in the rankings.
And now the paths of these two champions converged again, remarkably for the second time in the space of two months but for the first time ever on a hard-court.
And make no mistake. It meant a lot to both, Wawrinka twice a semi-finalist here, seeking his first final in New York, and beyond that, his third Major title. For del Potro, this was as much an emotional journey as a professional one. As he put it: “This tournament is great for me.
“I always love to play in New York. Of course I have great memories from 2009, but now my person is completely different, now my life is different. I have a different game. I’m getting older. Everything is like new for me, like a new career after my third surgery.
“I enjoy even more when I get into the courts than years ago. I just want to play tennis in front of the big crowds.”
The two arrived to rapturous applause, and would immediately begin to pummel the ball to a pulp with flat, big hitting. Del Potro is famed for his forehand, Wawrinka for his backhand, but that was to underplay their strikes on the other wings—and the willingness of both to use all the court.
First del Potro broke and took a 3-0 lead before Wawrinka got the break back in seventh game, and they edged to a tie-break amid some glorious first-strike tennis, and not a little counter-attacking. And once the Swiss took the first small lead, he would not lose it to close the set, 7-6(5) after almost an hour.
The match had not begun until almost 10pm and it was now well after 11, but the stadium was packed and becoming more emotionally invested by the minute. There were some early signs that del Potro’s right shoulder was feeling the impact of more tennis in the last month than he had played all year, but he got the key break in the seventh to serve out the second set, 6-4.
It was nip and tuck again in the third, but now one wondered whether del Potro could afford to lose this set, afford to fight through five. Wawrinka, if anything, looked stronger with each game and his signature backhand wrecked havoc after carefully manipulating his opponent wide to the ad court.
Time and again, it opened space for a bullet down the line, and sure enough, he got the break in a long, arduous eighth game and served out the set, 6-3: He pointed his finger to his temple and his look at his box. This was the tough man who had emerged from all that late-career effort.
It was no surprise that the Argentine was able to produce little resistance in the fourth: He had taken more treatment to his taped shoulder while Wawrinka left court for a comfort break. But this would not be over before the entire stadium cheered his name as he came to face Wawrinka’s serve for the last time, with the clock heading to 1.20am. It reduced the big man to tears.
He later admitted: “Well, [it was] something difficult to describe with words. I mean, I can lose the match, but I will never forget this. You know, it’s bigger than winning any match. I’m so proud to get that from the crowd, because I have been doing a big effort to play tennis again. They made me so happy tonight, and I don’t mind the score.
Of his physical shape, he added: “I’m not in the same level that these guys. I need to just to stay healthy and wait for the preseason to get 100 percent for next year. I’m already top 100, so that’s good. [Smiling] Never will ask for wildcard anymore.”
Wawrinka was impressive here, combining focus, patience and accurate but aggressive tennis. He made 10 aces but not one double fault. He made 21 points from 31 at the net, and struck 53 winners to del Potro’s 28.
The nimble, varied tennis of Kei Nishikori, who he plays in the semis, will be a different proposition altogether. Wawrinka had good reason to remember their previous clashes, too. Nishikori’s first win in their five matches came right here in the quarters, a five-set thriller, on the way to Nishikori’s final run in New York in 2014.
And their last meeting, also a win for the Japanese man, was just a month or so ago in Toronto.
Tune in Friday.