US Open Day 11: Del Potro Wakes Up In Time, Rain On Nadal's Parade

For the first time in this tournament, there was a rain delay.  For the first time in this tournament, there was a rain delay so long that matches had to be postponed until the next day.  For this to happen early on in the tournament would not have been too disruptive, but for it to delay the final men's night match of the tournament, setting up a situation in which the Gonzalez-Nadal winner could potentially have to play three matches in three days,

There's been some talk about how the schedulers did this to screw over Nadal and help Federer (who will have had both Thursday and Friday to rest before his semifinal on Saturday), but that's a pretty ridiculous notion.  Federer plays because he is the defending champion and therefore opened the tournament, and Nadal plays the day after him because he is on the opposite half of the draw.  No conspiracy, just the way most every grand slam is scheduled.

With that out of the way, here's a look at the 1.5 singles matches from Thursday, plus a little bonus coverage to make up for the meager portions on the singles plate:

Men's Bottom Half Quarterfinals:

Rafael Nadal ESP (3) leads Fernando Gonzalez CHI (11) 7-6(4), 6-6 (3-2*) susp. -- Fernando Gonzalez was doing an incredible job of keeping this match competitive, which was more than I thought he would be able to do.  Gonzalez was likely helped somewhat by Nadal's abdominal muscle strain, though it's impossible to say just how much that is bringing down his level of play.  Nadal, who looked totally healthy in his battle with Gael Monfils, is clearly getting worn down as this tournament progresses.  With his playing style he gets no easy points, which keeps him (and his strained abdominal muscle) out there for much too long.  The cold, rainy conditions will do Nadal's strain no favors, either.  If Gonzalez can find the self-belief he needs to recover from blowing set points in the first to come back and win the second, he'll be in pretty good shape.  Gonzalez has lost his last consecutive sets against Nadal, but he is potentially only five points from breaking that streak and restoring a huge amount of confidence.

Juan Martin del Potro ARG (6) def. Marin Cilic CRO (16) 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 -- Early on in this match, Marin Cilic's shock upset of Andy Murray didn't look like such a fluke.  He was hitting the ball cleanly and ending points on his terms, getting the first strike in enough rallies toBut then midway through the second set, when Cilic had a point to take a 4-2 lead to go up a set and a break, everything fell apart for the lanky Croat. del Potro seemed to realize that he was the one who was be winning this match, and Cilic seemed to remember he was the one who was supposed to be losing it.  They both assumed their predicted roles fairly quickly, and the rout was on. del Potro won 16 of the last 19 games to dig out of a big hole with pretty incredible speed.  It was exactly the sort of comeback against the decidedly collapsible Cilic that Andy Murray should have been able to pull off, but didn't.  Cilic put up little fight by the end, hitting sixteen errors to only three winners in the fourth set.  del Potro has looked the most solid of the players in the bottom half throughout the tournament in my mind, and the second half of this match was his best effort so far.  He matched Cilic in winners while hitting about half as many errors, moving well around the court and keeping the ball incredibly deep.  Especially with how exhausted they're bound to be, it's tough to see the Gonzalez-Nadal winner beating him.

For your bonus coverage, a Cinderella story where glass slipper fit at the end (even if the glass didn't have "Believe" etched in the sides):

Mixed Doubles Final:

Carly Gullickson USA/Travis Parrott USA def. Cara Black ZIM/Leander Paes IND (2) 6-4, 6-2 -- Mixed doubles is an odd event, to be sure, but there's no denying how incredible this performance by American wild card team Carly Gullickson and Travis Parrott was.  Parrott is a pretty decent player on the ATP doubles circuit (#34), but Gullickson's performance is only ranked #72 in doubles, and has never had any success to speak of before, never winning so much as a WTA doubles title much less a grand slam.  Parrott had been intending to play the event with Abigail Spears, but when she pulled out at the last second he was set up with Gullickson. 

Like Oudin before them, these two Americans also navigated an absolutely killer draw. They faced the #6 seeded team of Max Mirnyi and Nadia Petrova in the first round (against whom they saved three match points), the unseeded but fearsome team of Sania Mirza and recent #1 Daniel Nestor in the second, #3 seeds Lisa Raymond and Marcin Matkoswki in the quarterfinals, and #1 seeds Liezel Huber and Mahesh Bhupathi in the semifinals.  And in the final they played their best tennis yet, hitting only four total errors to dominate #2 seeds Cara Black and Leander Paes, the defending champions. The pair played classic doubles throughout, poaching at net to hit easy put away volleys and smashes on most every point they won. 

This title will likely go down as the career defining achievement for both Parrott and Gullickson, but hopefully it leads the two Americans to continued success.  Well done, you two.

And as a footnote: Travis Parrott and Carly Gullickson have each won one more grand slam title in their careers than Andy Murray.  Heh.