Nadal -130 over Del Potro 5.2 to win 4.0
Should be a scintillating semifinal here between these two. This will be the fourth meeting in '09, with Del Potro winning the last two. They have never before met in a Grand Slam, though. Much like Andy Murray in '08, JDP has been working toward a Slam final all season. He lost in both Melbourne and Paris to little-known journeyman Roger Federer and was a surprise loser to Hewitt at Wimbledon.
Del Potro did not play poorly against Cilic to open the match as some may have suggested, in fact he served quite well, but the big Cilic was returning his serve extremely well. Consider that he got over 22 aces against Ferrero and only 6 against Cilic with the same first serve percentage and speed (he also served more games against Cilic). He beat Cilic by being more consistent and mentally tougher in the tight points. Cilic did not play that poorly in my opinion. In the post match interview Cilic attributed Del Potro?s success to the power in his game.
Nadal has played very well to get through to the semifinal. He wore out Monfis and out toughed Gonzalez. Clearly he has the stamina to win and he seems willing to play long points. His serving against Fernando Gonzalez in the previous round was quite amazing with the Spaniard losing just 10 points behind first serve, facing just two break points all match saving both of them showing no signs of the abdominal strain effecting is serve.
When Rafa is at his best, he is the real world number one. Can Juan Martin Del Potro beat Rafael Nadal and deny him his career Grandslam in the Us Open Semifinal, taking 3 sets off the true #1. As of this very moment, I believe he can not...
