Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro both started their semifinal match not playing their best tennis. Their serving though worked well and they managed to hold.

Del Potro managed to get 0:40 on Federer’s serve and broke first when he calmly built the advantage in the point at 30:40. Roger’s shots didn’t really flow and especially his backhand landed much too short.

Del Potro’s backhand on the other hand worked beautifully and it was the backhand that won him 2 big points and Del Potro held for 4:2.

Then a patch of really bad mistakes from Federer allowed Del Potro to get 0:40 ahead again but Federer focused on the next 5 points and managed to hold.

Roger Federer wins against Juan Martin Del Potro (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

5 consecutive first serves from Del Potro at over 200 km / h gave no chance to Federer to break back. Another aggressive game from Juan Martin and the set was over 6:3 for Del Potro.

The second set went with serve where both players served accurately. Federer usually had to finish the point with a forehand or two whereas Del Potro served massive serves with over 210 km/h and often served aces or winners.

The set ended up in a tie-break where all the pressure was on Federer. If he lost, he would fall 2 sets to love behind…

Del Potro had all the advantages on the first point but then made really his first bad mistake of the set and fell 0:3 behind. Another unforced error at 3:1 gave Federer 2 mini breaks advantage.

Federer played without mistakes at his best level so far in the match and finally leveled the match with 1 set all.

I believe Roger’s mind raced ahead t and he made a few bad errors with his forehand and was therefore immediately broken. The same situation happened at 1:3 and Del Potro had 2 break points where he missed one of them for an inch outside of the line.

Federer managed to hold and that game might have been the key to this match…

One interesting thing I noticed was that Roger decided to return Juan Martin’s first serves with a drive backhand instead of a sliced or a block backhand which he used in the first 2 sets.

He still returned most second serves with a slice but could not find a good length and was immediately attacked.

Del Potro continued to play excellent high percentage tennis and frustrated Roger with extremely long shots to the baseline which Roger couldn’t attack and many of those balls didn’t bounce correctly either…

Del Potro broke Federer again and easily closed out the set on his serve winning the third set 6:2.

Roger continued to return with a drive backhand with much more success and also started to play less forcing tennis. A few mistakes by Del Potro and good returning enabled Federer to break Del Potro’s serve for the first time at 2:1 in the fourth set.

Roger continued to play well and Del Potro lost his first serve and also made some uncharceristic unforced errors with his backhand and Federer broke again, held his serve and leveled the match at 2 sets all.

Roger played very calmly at the start of the fifth set, he rallied with Del Potro and didn’t rush his attacks and he had no problems outplaying Del Potro in longer rallies.

The key to this were his driven backhand returns and also playing most of the backhands from the baseline with top spin. Roger seemed to finally trust his backhand again…

Roger broke in the first game and Del Potro defnitely moved slower, made more unforced errors and served around 10 to 15 km/h slower than before.
Both players then held his service games. Del Potro refocused again and minimized his unforced errors and was able to attack Roger with big first serves and big forehands.

At 3:2 for Federer Del Potro returned extremely well with deep flat backhand returns and Federer tried too much, made a few unforced errors and Del Potro leveled at 3 all.

Roger managed to get to 0:40 in the next game, then returned all 3 second serves with a backhand slice and Del Potro hit a winner on all of them.

Roger again figured out what was going on, gathered his courage and returned with a drive bakchand and forced a mistake. Juan Martin then committed one of his rare double faults and Roger broke again for 4:3.

That was the deciding break as both players held serve and Roger eventually closed out the final set 6:4.

Kudos to Juan Martin Del Potro for playing such tough and mature tennis in such a crucial match. He’ll be definitely joining Nadal, Murray, Djokovic and Federer  as one of the top contentders for future Grand Slams.

Why did Federer win?

I think the key tactical point that turned the match in his favor was deciding to play drive backhand returns instead of sliced ones. Roger still reverted back to slice here and then and it didn’t work.

I am quite sure that Roger doesn’t trust his drive backhand too much when it comes to returning fast serves, but he was courageous enough to do it inspite of his doubts.

And the reward for conquering the fear and doubt is his chance to become the greatest tennis player of all times if he wins the title on Sunday.