US Open| Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro win, setup epic quarter-final clash
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Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro registered wins against Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber and Austria’s Dominic Thiem respectively, to set up a mouth watering quarter final clash. Indian ace Rohan Bopanna and partner Gabriela Dabrowski was shown the door in the mixed doubles event.
Both Federer and Del Potro had to take injury breaks before coming back to finish the game. And while it looked pretty straightforward for the Swiss third seed, Del Potro had a grueling game at his disposal that saw immense grit and determination by the Argentine before emerging victorious after three hours and 36 minutes.
Backed by a strong Argentine crowd, Del Potro came back from two sets down to win the game 1-6 2-6 6-1 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 at Grandstand court. He was clearly struggling with his eye sight as Thiem won the first set 6-1 in just 37 minutes. He took his medical soon after and won his first in the 12th game before losing the second set 6-2.
However, the match was far from over as it took around another two hours and thirty minutes to get to the conclusion. After winning the third set 6-1 comfortably, the fourth set ran an hour long, which saw the Argentine saving two match points with aces and finally winning the decider. The fifth set was again tenuous as Del Potro failed to convert three break points while 3-2, 0-40 up, before winning it 6-4.
Roger Federer reduced his pre-quarters game to three sets after taking five sets to win in the previous two rounds. He won convincingly in a 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 game despite coming into the game with a back injury and needing medical treatment after the second set.
Though Federer won the game by straight sets and get 83% of his service points, he committed more unforced errors (20), compared to the last game (16) and Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber would feel he could have done much better to pose a challenge for the five-time champion.
Indian ace Rohan Bopanna’s US open campaign came to an end as he, along with Canadian partner Gabriela Dabrowski, was shown the door in the quarter-final against the New Zealand-Taiwan duo of Michael Venus and Chan Hao-ching. After winning the first set 6-4, the Indo-Canadian duo lost two successive sets 3-6, 8-10.
In women’s singles event, America’s Madison Key continued her impressive run on home soil as she defeated Ukraine’s fourth seed Elina Svitlona 7-6(2) 1-6 6-4 in the fourth round. She will face Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi in the quarter final, who beat Russia’s Daria Kasatkina 6-4 6-4.
