# 2009 US Open – Men's singles final

The 2009 US Open Men's Singles final was the championship tennis match of the Men's Singles tournament at the 2009 US Open. In the final, Juan Martín del Potro defeated 5-time defending champion Roger Federer 3–6, 7–6$^{(7–5)}$, 4–6, 7–6$^{(7–4)}$, 6–2 after 4 hours and 6 minutes to win the match. It was the first US Open singles final that went to 5 sets since 1999, a span of 10 events. The 2009 US Open final was Del Potro's first win over Federer, having lost his 6 previous encounters against the Swiss.
By winning the 2009 US Open, Del Potro became the first Argentinian man since Gastón Gaudio in 2004 to win a Grand Slam singles title, the first Argentinian man since Guillermo Vilas in 1977 to win a US Open singles title and the first Argentinian man to win a hard court Grand Slam singles title (Vilas won his US Open title on green clay).

## Background

Federer came to the 2009 US Open final having won the previous 2 Slams in 2009 – the French Open and Wimbledon. He also won the previous 5 US Open singles championships and was attempting to win a stand-alone record 6th consecutive US Open title, as well as trying to become the first male player in the Open Era to win any of the 4 Grand Slams 6 times in a row. Federer was also attempting to win his first Surface Slam. Federer was the no. 1 seed and the overwhelming favorite to win the title. Del Potro reached his first Grand Slam final at the 2009 US Open. He was seeking for his first Grand Slam title and his first win over Federer. While he lost his previous 6 encounters against Federer, he forced Federer to come back from 2 sets to 1 down in their latest encounter at the 2009 French Open, having not taken a set from Federer prior to the 2009 French Open. Given the high level both Federer and Del Potro showed in their semifinal matches against Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal respectively, the 2009 US Open final was expected to be a close match as well.

## Match

Del Potro won the pre-match coin toss and chose to receive, Federer elected to stay. In the first set, Federer held his first service game easily. In Del Potro's first service game, Federer generated 5 break points while Del Potro couldn't reach game point. Federer finally converted his 5th break point with a 12-shot rally that ended with a running cross-court forehand passing shot winner from Federer to take a 2–0 lead. Federer easily consolidated his break lead with an unreturned serve. Del Potro responded with an unreturned serve of his own to win his the 4th game. In the sixth game, Del Potro saved a break point to reduce the gap to 4–2. In the eighth game, a forehand error from Del Potro got him to 2–5, 0–40 and 3 set points down on his serve. Del Potro hit an ace and 2 winners to save the 3 sets points and held serve, but in the next game Federer successfully converted his first set point on his serve with an ace and won the first set 6–3.
In the second set, Federer broke Del Potro right at the start of the set, in a game Del Potro double-faulted twice. In the fourth game, Del Potro created his first break point opportunities of the match after a forehand error from Federer; Federer eventually saved 3 break points to hold for 3–1 while Del Potro saved 2 break points in the following game to hold serve. Both players held their serves in the next 4 games without facing break points. In the tenth game, Federer served for the second set at 5–4 and an unreturned kick serve gave him a 30–0 lead in the game; at 30-all in the tenth game, Del Potro hit 2 down-the-line forehand passing shot winners to break Federer's serve for the first time in the match and level the 2nd set to 5–5. Del Potro closed the next game with an unreturned flat serve to get up to 6–5 and be up in a set for the first time in the match. Federer closed the twelfth game of the set with a forehand error from Del Potro and took the second set to a tiebreaker. Both players won their points on serve in the first 6 points of the tiebreaker. On the seventh point, however, Federer mishit his plus-1 shot on his forehand and gave Del Potro the 4–3 mini-break. Both players won the following points on serve in the tiebreaker as Del Potro won the second set tiebreaker 7–5, closing with a plus-1 inside-out forehand winner.
In the third set, both players won their first service game at love. The first break of serve in this set came in the seventh game, when at 30-all, Federer hit to forehand errors to give Del Potro a 4–3 lead. In the eighth game Federer broke back, converting his 3rd consecutive break point with a backhand forced error from Del Potro. Federer faced a break point in the ninth game and responded with 3 unreturned serves to hold for a 5–4 lead. At 30-all in the tenth game, Del Potro hit 2 consecutive double-faults to give Federer the 3rd set 6–4.
In the fourth set, both players won their first 2 service games – Federer faced neither a break point nor deuce while Del Potro saved 3 break points in his first 2 service games. In the fifth game, Del Potro broke Federer at love with an inside-out forehand error from Federer. Del Potro consolidated his break for the first time in the match in the sixth game. In the eighth game, Del Potro sent a forehand to the net to give the break back to Federer and level the set to 4–4. In the tenth game, when Del Potro was 4–5 and 15–30 down, 2 points away from losing the match, Del Potro hit an unreturned serve, an ace and a down-the line forehand winner to hold for 5–5. In the eleventh game Federer was 40–0 up but eventually needed to save 2 break points and held serve for 6–5. Del Potro won the twelfth game at love and took the fourth set to a tiebreaker. Federer double-faulted on the first point of the tiebreaker to give Del Potro the mini-break; from this point on in the tiebreaker both players won their service points, like in the second set tiebreaker. Del Potro won the tiebreaker 7–4 and the fourth set, following a forehand error from Federer. This was the first time Federer was taken to a fifth set in a US Open final.
Del Potro opened the fifth and deciding set with a comfortable hold. A plus-1 inside-in forehand error from Federer gave Del Potro 2 break points in the second game of the set. Del Potro converted the second break point with a running cross-court forehand passing shot winner to take a 2–0 lead. Del Potro saved a break point in the third game of the set to consolidate the break and take a 3–0 lead. Del Potro didn't face another break point for the rest of the match. A plus-1 inside-in forehand winner in the seventh game gave Del Potro a 5–2 lead. In the eighth game, when Federer served to stay in the match, a mishit cross-court backhand error from him gave Del Potro 2 match points. Federer forced 2 errors from Del Potro to save these 2 match points and an unreturned serve game Federer a game point. Del Potro hit a down-the-line forehand winner to take the game to a second deuce. Federer double-faulted to give Del Potro a third match point and this time, Del Potro converted it: a down-the-line forehand from Del Potro forced a backhand error from Federer that went long. Del Potro ended Federer's US Open streak and claimed his first (and only) Grand Slam title.

## Statistics

| Category | Federer | Del Potro |
| 1st serve % | 91 of 181 = 50% | 110 of 171 = 64% |
| 1st serve points won | 65 of 91 = 71% | 79 of 110 = 72% |
| 2nd serve points won | 50 of 90 = 56% | 35 of 61 = 57% |
| Aces | 14 | 10 |
| Double faults | 11 | 6 |
| Winners | 50 | 49 |
| Unforced errors | 72 | 65 |
| Winners-UFE | −22 | -16 |
| Break point conversions | 5 of 22 = 23% | 5 of 15 = 34% |
| Receiving points won | 57 of 171 = 34% | 66 of 181 = 36% |
| Total points won | 172 | 180 |
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## Significance

* With his win, Del Potro ended Federer's 40-match winning streak at the US Open (the longest in the Open Era) and ended his streak of consecutive US Open titles. He also denied Federer the opportunity to win a stand-alone record 6th US Open title, his first Surface Slam and a potential non-calendar Grand Slam, as Federer won the French Open and Wimbledon in 2009 and the Australian Open in 2010.
* Del Potro became the first player to defeat Federer in a US Open final and the second player to defeat Federer in any Grand Slam final – the first one was Rafael Nadal, who already defeated Federer in 5 Grand Slam finals at this point. Del Potro eventually became the only player outside of the Big 3 to defeat Federer in a Grand Slam final, as Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are the only other players to have done so.
* With his 2009 US Open win, Del Potro became the first player to beat both Nadal and Federer to win a Grand Slam title. Novak Djokovic repeated this feat at the 2011 US Open.
* The 2009 US Open final is the only Grand Slam final Federer lost after leading by 2 sets to 1.
* The 2009 US Open is the only Grand Slam where all three members of the Big 3 reached the semifinal, but none of them won.
* Federer didn't win the US Open again. He reached one additional US Open final in 2015.
* As of 2024, no player has been able to successfully defend a US Open men's singles title since Del Potro's 2009 US Open win.