Juan Martin del Potro had it all.  He beat Nadal in three easy sets in 2009 in the US Open semifinals.  Then, he took down Federer in five sets in the finals to be the only player outside of Djokovic, Nadal, and Federer to win a Slam since 2005.  Six years of Slams have only yielded four champions: Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, and del Potro.

del Potro was the kind of player that might have taken over number one.  He had a big enough serve to win free points, and big enough groundstrokes to pummel nearly everyone.

But his good fortune hit a snag when he injured his wrist and needed surgery.  He played the Australian Open in 2010, then pretty much had to tend to his wrist.  He pretty much shut down for 2010.  He played two tournaments after the US Open, but early losses convinced him to shut it down for the rest of 2010.  2011 was a year for del Potro to come back, and he slowly came back, winning titles and his ranking steadily rose so that, by the end of the year, he was ranked 11, and was making plans to get back into the top ten.

By the Australian Open, Juan Martin del Potro had declared himself nearly ready to get back to the top.  Despite a small hiccup from the aggressive Mannarino in the first set, del Potro had a pretty easy march to the quarterfinals, winning in straight sets.  But was he ready to beat Roger Federer.  Federer looked awfully sharp beating Tomic, but Tomic’s weird slow-down style is meant to disrupt the rhythm of his opponents.  Federer would have none of that.  When Tomic started hitting hard and flat, Federer was more than ready to the task

del Potro is in a different category than Tomic.  He’s very steady, and has the kind of firepower that makes most players shudder in awe.  But, despite being awfully mobile for a guy his height, he’s still not as mobile as the top four.

Federer’s basic tactic appeared to be to hit mostly to the del Potro backhand.  He started off the first set very quickly with a break lead, but then played a bad game where he hit the ball just long or just in the net, and his game seemed off kilter.  However, he held it together to take the first set, 6-4.  With one set in the pocket, Federer began to relax.  He would take strokes and drive it down the line, or hit a drop shot, followed by a lob, or even slice slow shots up the middle in a strategy reminiscent of del Potro.  And Federer kept slicing that serve out wide, which really befuddled del Potro who struggled to reach the wide shots.  Once the second set was secured, Federer broke twice in the third and won 64 63 62.

Although Berdych’s refusal to shake hands with Almagro, Nadal’s mind was more on Berdych’s hitting.  Berdych hadn’t beaten Nadal in some 9 matches.  Berdych basically has one way to play Nadal.  Be aggressive.  The first set was tight with both players having chances to break, especially Nadal, but neither player able to do so.  The tiebreak was also pretty close and hinged on a challenge that Nadal failed to get off in time when he felt Berdych hit the ball deep (replays showed he did) and Berdych secured the first set tiebreak.

The second set was just as close with each player breaking once.  It, too, went to a tiebreak, but this time Nadal came out on top, 8-6.  Nadal then asserted himself in sets 3 and 4 and felt he played very high quality tennis to beat a big hitter like Berdych, 64 and 63.

Both players are playing very well, but I felt Berdych was more impressive pressuring Nadal and Nadal weathered the storm.  As good as Roger is playing, I wonder if he can handle Nadal.  The one hope is the long match affected Nadal, but four hours is still not that serious for Nadal.

Tonight, Andy Murray takes on Kei Nishikori who looked exhausted in his win over Tsonga.  The big question is can he recover?  The good news is the weather is not expected to be as hot as it was two days ago.  Even so, all those sets must be tiring, and so Murray has a solid edge.  In the other match, Novak Djokovic takes on David Ferrer.  Ferrer was beaten soundly by Djokovic at Abu Dhabi.  Can he do better?  Ferrer seems to have topped out.  Better than pretty much every player below him, but lacking enough firepower to bother the players above him.  Had Djokovic not had a letdown against Hewitt, he would have utterly dominated the Aussie, as he did in sets 1, 2, and 4.  Still, Ferrer is likely to pose more of a challenge to Djokovic than Nishikori to Murray because he’s higher ranked and healthier.

Still, we’re looking at the final four making the semis once again, at least, so it seems.