20131012delpoIf there’s anyone who understands what Nadal went through when he took 7 months off the tour, it has to be Juan Martin del Potro.  At the end of 2009, del Potro looked like he might be the man to crack the triumvirate of Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic.  He had won the US Open by crushing Nadal, then beating Federer in 5 sets.  He had reached the year-end finals by the slimmest of margins, using a secondary tiebreak to edge out Andy Murray for a semifinal berth, then beat Robin Soderling, before losing to surprise finalist, Nikolay Davydenko.

del Potro had a nice run at the Australian Open at the start of 2010, but he would soon discover he needed surgery on his wrist.  His expected return time was shortly after the US Open which would have been roughly 8 months off tour.  When he returned, he lost in the opening round in two consecutive tournaments.  With those poor results, del Potro chose to shut it down the rest of the year.

By 2011, he made a solid, if not quite spectacular return working his way roughly to the top ten.  However, this del Potro was not nearly as aggressive as the original one.  Post-surgery del Potro opted to play patient ball, rather than intimidate with his forehand.  It was really until 2013 that he started to use his power more, especially in an attempt to go deep at Wimbledon, including a routing of Ferrer, and pushing Djokovic to the brink in a semifinal encounter.

By contrast, Nadal’s return was marked with success almost from the start.  Even though he lost to Horacio Zeballos in a tournament in Chile, he ran off win after win, taking 2 clay events, winning Indian Wells, before he took another break.  Then, he lost to Djokovic in the finals of Monte Carlo before winning the rest of the clay season, including yet another French title.

Nadal decided, after so much play, not to play any tournaments until Wimbledon, and he looked rusty in a first round booting by Steve Darcis.  Then, he won Montreal and Cincinnati to pick up his fourth and fifth Masters 1000 title, tying Djokovic for most Masters 1000 wins in a season.

He then beat Novak Djokovic to win the US Open, and pick up his second Slam of the year.  Nadal didn’t return to play until Beijing where he lost in straight sets to Djokovic, but still looked solid.

The final was fireworks from the start.  Nadal struggled with keeping shots in the court while also contending with the Delpo forehand.  Delpo was able to break Nadal’s serve early on, which was the first time Nadal had been broken all tournament.  Nadal had come off a close tiebreak against Wawrinka, but ultimately did not drop his first set to the Swiss, then routed him in the second set.

Delpo’s strategy was to move Nadal around, and apply pressure with his forehand.  He also attacked Nadal off his second serve.  Nadal tried to compensate by hitting harder, but hit several double faults in the process.

Delpo got up 4-0 with a double break lead, and eventually closed out the first set, 6-2.  Delpo was able to get a fairly early break in the second set.  Nadal appeared to break back when a ball was called out on break point, but a replay showed it landed on the line.

This was one of those matches that is far more enjoyable to watch because it’s so hard to describe just how awesome a display of power Delpo demonstrated.  Few players can make Rafa struggle to reach shots.  Even the high loopers that were used to buy time merely allowed the 6’6″ player to lean in and hit power shots on both sides.

del Potro will play Novak Djokovic in the finals.  Djokovic handled Tsonga fairly comfortably with a 6-2, 7-5 win.