As expected, Rafael Nadal made pretty light work of his quarter final duel with youngster Andrey Rublev. It only took the Spaniard an hour and 37 minutes to crush his 19-year-old opponent and the gulf in class between the two was evident right from the off. There was much expectation that for the first time ever, we would get to see a Rafael Nadal v Roger Federer clash at the US Open in the semi finals this year, but instead, Nadal will meet Juan Martin del Potro, who stunned Federer in four sets in their quarter final battle.
Federer hadn’t quite looked his sharpest throughout the tournament and he struggled to keep pace with the big-hitting Del Potro in their final eight duel. Del Potro got the first set on the board and after Federer had fought back to level the match in the second, there was a pivotal moment in the third set tie break when Federer wasted chances in the tie break to take the advantage of the match, but when Argentine Del Potro got his chance, he took it.
Nadal is 2/5 odds-on favourite at bet365 to move through to the final from this match, with Del Potro at 13/5.
It’s been a tremendous run from Del Potro, who has suffered through illness to come through some big matches. He is a former US Open winner from back in 2009 and with having had four surgeries on his hand since then, it has been a long way back for him. The victory over Federer came just 48 hours after his epic fourth round win over Dominic Thiem with him having saved two match points in the fourth set to fight back for the victory.
So now we have a Nadal v Del Potro showdown and many punters will be expecting the winner of this semi final to go on and lift the title. These two last met at the 2016 Rio Olympics, with Del Potro winning in three. The Argentine has won the last two meetings with Nadal. But it is the Spaniard who is 8-5 up in the overall head to head. They have met at the US Open before, back in the 2009 title run for Delpo after beating Nadal in the semi finals.
They have met once at Wimbledon and once at the French Open in their other Grand Slam clashes and Nadal won both of those. From previous hard court meetings, Delpo has won 5 of the nine clashes with Nadal on the surface. This may well be a battle that goes on and on, but Nadal 3-1 in set betting looks good value at 11/4 with bet365. Del Potro has put in much heavier work during the tournament than Nadal has, will that catch up with him?
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