Tennis Update: United States Open tournament: top two major upsets of last year
The United States Open tennis tournament is held annually as the final Grand Slam of the season at the Flushing Meadows in the city of New York. The competition is contested at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in the month of August and September.
This year’s fourth major of the season is about to begin within a couple of days. In this regard, let us have a look at the top two major upsets at the US Open tennis tournament last year in the game of men as well as women tennis.
1. Melanie Oudin against the Russians
At the United States Open tournament back in 2009, a seventeen year old tennis player from Georgia formed her own single woman juggernaut versus the best Russian tennis contenders in the world, knocking them out at a time in a delightful manner.
The young tennis ace stole the headlines as the press from all over the world highlighted her clashes at the Flushing Meadows in the city of New York last year.
The American’s very first win came over the Russian tennis ace, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in her first round clash, where she dominated right from the start with a final match score of 6-2, 6-1. However, no one quite noticed the young girl at that time. Oudin then faced and upset Elena Dementieva, a fourth seeded player in her second round match of the US Open tennis tournament back in 2009. The final match score was 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.
Oudin’s next opponent in the third round of the competition was another top ranked Russian tennis ace, Maria Sharapova. Once again, the American stunned the entire world by thrashing down the Russian stunner in a three setter clash. The final match score was 3-6, 6-4, 7-5. As a result of this victory, Melanie Oudin successfully managed to reach the fourth round of the fourth Grand Slam, the US open, where she met Nadia Petrova and ousted her to advance into the quarters of the US Open 2009 with a final match score was 1-6, 7-6, and 6-3.
In her quarterfinal battle, where Oudin met her very first non Russian opponent of the tournament, she lost. Dane Caroline Wozniacki hammered down Oudin, ending her winning streak at the United States Open tournament. Since that championship, Oudin has never received that much press attention ever again, however, she being a young player still has a lot of time to prove her talent once again at this year’s US Open competition.
2. Roger Federer against Juan Martin Del Potro, 2009 final battle
The Swiss tennis ace, Roger Federer had captured the US Open title on the last five occasions in a row, however, nothing stays forever, and so was the case with the current number two Federer back in 2009, at the Flushing Meadows in New York. Juan Marin Del Potro had to battle for his life in this clash however; he never doubted his talent that he could beat the Swiss across the net who was ranked number one at that time.
After all, Roger had not lost a match at the Flushing Meadows for the last five years. The top seeded was in the final on the sixth occasion in a row and was hoping to win a sixth US Open title in a row.
The twenty year old Potro managed to achieve what his fellow tennis players Novak Djokovic, as well as Andy Murray failed to accomplish at the Arthur Ashe stadium as he toppled the big man in the final of the US Open tournament back in 2009.
Besides the Spaniard Rafael Nadal, Del Potro registered his name as the second tennis player in the history of the game to beat Roger Federer in the final of a Grand Slam event. Del Potro also became the second Argentinean player to capture the US Open title.
Federer had won the previous six clashes against the Argentinean prior to the final battle at the Flushing Meadows last year. However, he wasn’t aware of the fact that Potro had learned from his previous defeats and entered the final after doing his homework against the Swiss.
Federer grabbed the match points on a variety of occasions during the final battle however, Del Potro unlike his previous clashes fought back strongly and outlasted and surpassed the big man and won prize money of $1.6 million.
Coming into the competition this season, however, the Argentinean tennis player will have to work really hard in order to reach the final battle, as he has been out of the tennis scene for most of the season due to his wrist injury.
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