US Open 2010 – Defenders of the Title
The final and most grandly anticipated tournament of the famed ‘Grand Slam’ has been in procession for over a week now, and fans have watched avidly as the competition begins to narrow itself down to the last eight for both men and women.
Last year’s defending champion for the men’s title is Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro, currently seeded tenth. In 2009, del Potro defeated five time consecutive winner Roger Federer in a match which lasted over four hours. Federer is currently the second highest ranked player in the world.
The US Open 2009 finals match signalled del Potro’s first victory in a Grand Slam tournament, snagging him his maiden trophy. With this achievement, he became the second Argentine to win a US Open trophy, as well as the fifth youngest man to ever win this title.
The advent of this year has signalled a number of problems for the young Argentine, who was plagued by a persistent wrist injury for much of this year. He competed in the Australian Open 2010 with this injury, only to be eventually defeated by Croatian Marin Cilic. After this tournament he opted for surgery on his wrist and only returned to tennis on the 2nd of August, 2010, in time to practice to defend his US Open title. Juan Martin del Potro also wrote on Twitter, ‘’So nice to hit the ball again...I had the racket in my hand.”
So far, del Potro’s competition for this year will move in to the semi-finals, limiting opponents to eight. Top three seeds, Spanish Rafael Nadal, Swiss Roger Federer and Serbian Novak Djokovic are also among his competition for the round of the Last Eight.
In 2007, this year’s defending champion Kim Clijsters retired for two years, during which she married American basketball player Brian Lynch and gave birth to a daughter, Jada Ellie. During these two years, Clijsters also dealt with the loss of her father, who was a major influence in her professional life. In 2009 however, she requested a wildcard entry into that year’s US Open after a two year hiatus from the sport. She has been reported as saying that she “preferred to think of it as a second career instead of a comeback”, since circumstances were vastly different for her in this half of her career due to her marriage, motherhood and her father’s death.
Clijsters reached the final against second seeded Dane, Caroline Wozniacki and defeated her in two straight sets, 7-5 and 6-3. This made her the first mother to win a Grand Slam after Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1980. She is also the first unranked player and wildcard to win a Grand Slam tournament and is popularly known as one of the Comeback Queens of Tennis.
As of 2010, Clijsters began this year at the Brisbane International, winning the tournament to make her 36th career title. She also won the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open against Venus Williams, and went on to play at the Andalucia Tennis Experience and Belgium’s Fed Cup, where she suffered a torn muscle and consequently dropped out of the French Open 2010, where she would have been a favourite to win. Other tournaments she has played this year include her first Wimbledon since 2006, the 2010 Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open and the 2010 Rogers Cup.
So far in the US Open, Clijsters has beaten Ana Ivanovic by a wide margin of 6-2, 6-1, to proceed to the quarterfinals. Favourites to win this year include Clijsters herself, Venus Williams and Caroline Wozniacki. Kim Clijsters next match is against Australian Samantha Stosur, a quarter final which will dictate who proceeds to a semi final against Venus Williams on Friday.
In the event that Clijsters does shatter the opposition into another win for herself in the US Open 2010, she would become the first back-to-back champion since Venus Williams in 2001.
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