Del Potro Arrives -- And Plans to Stay

NEW YORK -- He fell flat on his back, stretched out his freakishly long wingspan, and the tallest man ever to win a major tennis championship started bawling like a little baby. He thought about his parents, his friends, his life, his dreams.

Certain things are impossible, are absolutes. The name of major title winners in tennis can be any off the following list:

Federer, Nadal.

But that big baby, who kept on crying and crying, was Juan Martin del Potro. He won the U.S. Open Monday, beating Roger Federer 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2.
"You know," Federer said, "you can't have them all."

Since when? Federer, was going for his sixth straight U.S. Open title, his third straight major. The guy just keeps providing classic five-set major finals.

And the only thing more odd than seeing Federer holding the second-place trophy over his head was hearing him argue with the chair umpire during the match over how long del Potro was taking to decide to use the replay system.

"Do you have any rules in there," Federer said. "Stop showing me the hand, OK? Don't tell me to be quiet, OK? When I want to talk, I'll talk. I don't give a (deleted) what he said ..."

Perfection disheveled. So this was the end of ...

No, forget that. This is not the death of anything, but instead the birth of something. Tennis has a new star in del Potro, who is just 20.

He beat Rafael Nadal in the semis on Sunday, and said it was the greatest day of his life. He beat Federer on Monday, and how does this day compare to the last one?

"Much better," he said. "Everything is perfect. I can't believe."

You wonder what tomorrow can hold.

Just imagine what happened: A young man in his first major final played at Ashe Stadium against maybe the greatest player ever. He was two points from losing.

But he wouldn't let Federer close him out.

"It's too early to explain," said del Potro, who's from Argentina. "Maybe tomorrow, maybe next week I will be believing this. But now, I don't know. I don't understand nothing."


Del Potro showed the ultimate respect for Federer afterward, telling him, and the crowd, that he actually had two dreams, to win the U.S. Open and to be like Federer.

Welcome to the club, Juan Martin. He is going to be a superstar, but who knew it would come this soon? Now, he stands at the top of the game, on the same platform with the two legends.

Of course, Federer has a record 15 major titles. Del Potro has one. But when you see something like this arriving so early ... well here's how Federer put it.

"Rafa, we've had some epic ones, sure, great ones over the years. Who knows, maybe del Potro is going to join that as well."

Listen, this is not just Federer being gracious. He does not allow membership to the club easily. A few weeks ago I asked him about this amazing next generation of men's players -- a generation I believe will be the greatest ever -- and Federer wouldn't have any of it.

He said the young players emerging have been around for a while, and not reached the mountaintop.

"I mean," he said, "del Potro, I played him the first time three, four years ago."

Meanwhile, I asked del Potro during the Open about coming along in the Nadal-Federer generation. He said those guys were two or three steps ahead of him. But he's young, he said, and "they're going to retire and I'm going to be much better, so ..."

See? Del Potro is developing before our eyes.

Last year, the same pressure got to Andy Murray, another leader of tennis' next generation. Murray folded under Federer's pressure. There's supposed to be a learning curve.

And in the first set Monday, del Potro was awful, too.

"The beginning of the match, I was so nervous,'' he said. "I can't sleep last night. I don't take a breakfast today."

So frozen, he couldn't even move his legs.

But by the middle of the second set, del Potro just simply started to improve, got his big serve in, got aggressive on his forehand. His legs started to move.

He got nervous late in the third set, though, and lost it on consecutive double-faults. Del Potro was ready to smash his racquet, but instead decided not to. "I don't do that because maybe when I feel nervous, I saw Roger and he's a gentleman player.

"We have to learn many things about him. Many times I do that today."

See? Del Potro was using the big moment to learn from the best. So instead of falling apart, he thought about fighting to the end.

Late in the fourth set, del Potro was two points from losing on his serve. Federer had stepped up his level, and it was probably an acceptable time for a 20-year old to give in.

Instead, he crushed two big serves and a forehand to hold. He had found toughness.

And in the fifth set, all about mental edge, Federer, so pressured by del Potro's forehand, lost his nerve on serve and on his backhand.

So what does this do to Federer's legacy? Not much, really. He's going to win plenty more majors. This year, he lost two major finals, won two, got married and had twins.

"It's been an amazing year," he said. "Don't know how much more I want."

For del Potro, he finds himself on top of a mountain even he didn't know he was ready to scale. You might not have heard of him before yesterday, but there can be no better introduction, beating Nadal and then Federer.

Those two are still the absolutes, still the impossible. Turns out, there's room on the mountaintop for three.

Email me at gregcouch09@aol.com