Juan Martin Del Potro reached his dream – he finally won the US Open this year by beating Roger Federer in five tough sets.

The parts of interviews below are from his 6 interviews that he gave at the US Open 2009 and I’ve chosen the parts that show how Juan Martin Del Potro mentally approached the US Open and how he mentally adjusted during the tournament.

Juan Martin Del Potro at the US Open 2009 / Photo by: Philip Hall/usopen.org

Interview after beating Jurgen Melzer 7-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the second round:

Q. And in the hardcourt summer season, you have had great success. What do you attribute that to?

JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO: Well, I like the surface, for sure. I beat Roddick, González, and they are very good players on this kind of surface. But if I want to be a good player in the future and to beat Murray, Federer, and Djokovic on this surface, I will try.

(more…)

Kim Clijsters won her second US Open Grand Slam beating Caroline Wozniacki 7-5, 6-3. Kim kept her level of play extremely high and was playing without fear, doubt and hesitation.

Kim Clijsters at the US Open 2009 / Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images

But so unbelievable about Kim’s win is that she already retired from tennis couple of years ago.

Kim started playing just for fun 5 months ago when she was invited to play an exhibition match at Wimbledon with Tim Henman, Andre Agassi and Steffi Graff. (more…)

Serena Williams lost her semi-final match at the US Open 2009 against Kim Clijsters in a controversial way. Serena was 4-6, 5-6 and 15:30 down when she served a second serve and it was called a foot fault by the line judge.

That meant 15:40 and two match points for Clijsters. Serena at first seemed to accept the call but a few seconds later she exploded and threateaningly wawed her racquet towards the line judge and definitely said a few harsh words.

Serena Williams threatens the line judge after a foot fault call / Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images

The line judge was encouraged by the chair umpire to tell what Serena said and it seemed like Serena said that »I will kill you…« or something like that.

Anyway, the tournament referee (Brian Earley) was called in and according to the rules if the player threatens or curses towards any of the umpires, he or she gets a warning. (more…)

Ana Ivanovic lost in the first round of the US Open 2009 against Kateryna Bondarenko 6-2, 3-6, 6-7.

It’s interesting to see how much Ana actually knows about the mental game and how it’s not really about learning more about the mental game but how difficult it is to implement and use what you know.

Q. What’s difficult about the toss, anyway? Seems not to be a difficult part of the game.

ANA IVANOVIC: Yeah, serve should be the easiest part, because the only shot you control completely. Yeah, it’s – I think it just – it’s very hard to describe, because what happens is that sometimes when I toss, I either release too early or I flick it and I release too late. It’s just so hard to describe. It’s like, you know, I tried also to do exercises with heavier ball so I get more feel for it. I mean now it’s feeling better so I worked on that.

Ana says that the serve should be the easiest part but that belief (that the serve is the easiest) can set you up for many frustrating moments. (more…)

Photo by Matthew Stockman / Getty Images

Gilles Muller is not an uknown name for those who follow men’s professional tennis more closely.

If you don’t remember him from 2004 when he beat Agassi in the semi-finals of Legg Mason Classic in Washington, then you probably heard of him when he beat Andy Roddick in the first round of US Open 2005.

Gilles Muller was born in Luxembourg, is a left-hander and is 195 cm tall.

He turned pro in 2001 and has already earned more than a million dollars on the ATP tour.

He had an incredible run at this year’s US Open when he reached the quarter finals losing to the eventual champion Roger Federer.

Here’s why his run was such an impressive feat:

1. Gilles played many ATP and Challenger series of tournaments this year until the US Open but his results were quite mixed.

He played 4 ATP tournaments and lost 3 times in the first round and once in the second round. His Challenger results are a little better although he was far from being constant; he played 12 Challengers, won 2 of them and lost in others most of the times in the first or second round.

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Photo by AFP

Andy Murray played a smart tactical game when winning the semi-final match at the 2008 US Open against Rafael Nadal 6-2 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 6-4.

Nadal’s aggressive baseline game has been an unsolvable problem for Federer and most other players in 2008 but Murray found a crack in it.

Here’s how most players play against Nadal:

1. They play to his backhand since his forehand is a stronger shot. While this stops Nadal from attacking for a few shots, it doesn’t really win points. Nadal’s backhand may be weaker than his forehand but it’s far from being a weak shot especially if he doesn’t have to move much!

2. They position themselves at the normal spot when returning his serves – 1m or so behind the baseline. Nadal’s serve cannot compare to Andy Roddick’s rockets but it’s still a very good shot and keeps the returner on defense.

3. They force the shots since they know that Nadal will bring every ball back. Forcing the shots means playing with more and more risk and this eventually doesn’t work since the long term probability of winning the point goes to Nadal. (more…)

Roger Federer – Andy Roddick quarterfinal match at the US Open 2007 was one of the highest quality tennis matches I’ve seen lately.

It reminded me of the famous Agassi – Sampras quarterfinal match in 2000 when all 4 sets went to tie-break and Sampras won 3-1.

Andy had the right tactic to play Roger – attack the attacker.

Roger is at his best when he controls the game, makes you run, makes you hit low sliced balls and forces you to make impossible passing shots.

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Roger Federer won his third round US Open 2007 match against John Isner with a 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 score.

He was having trouble with Isner’s serve who served 9 aces in the first set, had a 72% of the first serve and won 79% of points when the first serve went in.

But something remarkably happened in the second and third set: Federer played 105 points without an unforced error!

(more…)

Looking to buy US Open tennis tickets?

Tennis tickets for US Open are already on sale and here are some tips and thoughts before you buy them:

1. In most cases, if you buy tennis tickets for multiple days, you’ll get a discount.

2. Lower seats give you a much better view but they cost more.

3. Try and get a seat behind the player so that you will clearly see the pattern of play.

If you have a seat on the side of the court you constantly need to turn your head to see the ball and you miss a lot on how the players actually hit the ball and where.

4. US Open tennis tickets will become more and more expensive as the date of the tournament comes closer. US Open starts on 27th of August and ends on 9th of September.

5. Good days to watch are quarterfinals where you get to see many top players battling in exciting matches.

If they got to the quarterfinals they had to be in form and there is usually not so much pressure as in the semifinal so the level of play can be higher.

6. The best day to watch is the Super Saturday where you get to see men’s semifinals and women’s final. But be ready to stay on court for at least 5 hours.

Oh yes, where to buy the tickets for this year’s US Open?

Buy US Open Tennis Tickets