The round of 16 meeting was going Thiem’s way for the first half of the match.
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The fourth set proved to be where del Potro showed he had taken over the match.
The 28-year-old ran with his momentum in the tie-break, ending it with a forehand cross-court bullet that took the breath away. Del Potro has more experience and that’s going to come invaluable for the 2009 champion at the back end of this match. I was [making mistakes] a lot.
The Austrian was struggling to match the fast start made by his opposition but managed to get on the board in the third game, 1-2.
“The only time when he was really better, in my opinion, was the fifth set”, Federer told reporters as he looked back on his 3-6 7-6 (7-3) 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 defeat seven years ago. Thiem served for the match at 5-3, but got broken.
2017 had been a quieter year thus far for Del Potro.
The match lasted three-hours and thirty-five minutes on the Grandstand court. Come September, del Potro beat Murray in a five-hour plus match over five sets, to reach the Davis Cup final, and then took nearly five hours to beat Marin Cilic, having beaten Ivo Karlovic in four, to lead Argentina to his nation’s first Davis Cup title-all, it later transpired, with a broken finger. How close was this? But Thiem surged ahead 5-2 in the fourth, and twice was two points from the win. Now it might be the moment to take at least one more step but he is set to face the same guy who eliminated him past year.
Last year, the Argentine was the one with the winning ticket.
If Roger Federer can get past Kohlschreiber, the Swiss Master will face either No. 6 seed Dominic Thiem or 2009 US Open champion Juan Martín del Potro in the quarter-final.
Federer set off alarm bells during his fourth round win over Philipp Kohlschreiber when he left the court to have work done on his back, the part of his body which forced him to pull out of a US Open tune-up event in Cincinnati. I was sorry for him, because he had a legitimate good chance to become world No. 1 at that time.
Nadal had dropped the first set in the two previous rounds but he was locked in from the start of his 50th U.S. Open victory, never losing serve and facing just two break points.
“Obviously (del Potro) has everything to win and nothing to lose”, said Wilander, who is at the US Open as analyst for Eurosport.
Federer improved to 12-0 against Kohlschreiber; his record against del Potro is 16-5.
epa06184268 Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina hits a return to Dominic Thiem of Austria on the eighth day of the US Open Tennis Championships at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 04 September 2017.
The 24th seed won 1-6 2-6 6-1 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 in three hours and 35 minutes. “I’m fit. I’m doing well”.
Dolgopolov, who has been interviewed by anti-corruption investigators about a match with unusual betting patterns last month at another tournament, was hesitant to give Nadal too much credit.
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“I just felt something, sort of my muscle being tight at the back”. They know what I have been through with all my wrist problems. He will take on Russian teenager Andrey Rublev, who upset ninth seed David Goffin of Belgium 7-5, 7-6 (5), 6-3.
