Del Potro and Nishikori: Two Teens Electrify on the Big Stage
Monday, September 1, 2008
 Del Potro Forehand |
 Nishikori Fist |
 Del Potro Stretches |
 Nishikori Service |
By Neil Schlecht
The tennis world is accustomed to overachieving teens in the women’s game: Chrissie, Tracy, Martina. But their presence is more of a rarity in the big-hitting men’s game, where late-maturing boys usually take a few years before becoming men on tour.
Witness Donald Young.
But two teens from disparate parts of the world – one a surging tennis powerhouse, the other better known for its electronics and sushi – have taken the US Open by storm and, on the strength of respective down-to-the-wire, five-set matches, reached the final 16.
Juan Martín del Potro, 19, from Argentina, and Kei Nishikori, 18, from Japan, both electrified crowds on show courts in day matches that went deep into the night on Friday. Side-by-side and back-to-back, Del Potro and Nishikori toiled for nearly four hours apiece to push into the fourth round.
There the two teens will meet . . . each other.
Monday’s matchup won’t just be a battle to determine the top teen; it may gauge who is ready to issue a manly challenge to the rulers of the men’s game.
Del-Po, the Enano
Rafael Nadal isn’t the hottest player on tour. That distinction goes to Del Potro, who’s strolling through the summer on a 22-match win streak. The Argenteen has won four tournaments since July – becoming the first player to win his first four titles in four straight tournaments.
As a reward, Del Potro has rocketed up the rankings. In July he was No. 65; by the start of the US Open, he had reached a career-high of 17. Along the way he has notched wins over Andy Roddick and Richard Gasquet.
Del Potro, from the small city of Tandil, five hours south of Buenos Aires, hardly looks the part of a newcomer. The lanky 6-foot-6 right-hander, nicknamed “Enano” (Dwarf) and “Palito” (Twig), has an imposing game of forceful groundstrokes and a big, 130-mph-plus serve. The Argentine takes a massive windup on his forehand and crushes the ball deep into the corners. Unlike most of his compatriots (of whom there were 10 in the draw at the start of the US Open), who are more at home on clay, Del Potro prefers hard courts (even though two of his titles this summer were on European dirt).
After his 3-hour, 47-minute third-round victory over Gilles Simon, another player who’s had a personal-best summer, Del Potro said: “It was punishing, a battle. At the end, neither of us had anything left.”
“One day of rest won’t be enough; I need a month,” he added. “But I can’t complain.”
A First for Japan
The baby-faced and much slighter Kei Nishikori, ranked No. 126, is the youngest player remaining in the men’s draw and the youngest to reach the last 16 here since Marat Safin did it in 1998.
To get there, Nishikori scored the knockout of the tournament so far, toppling No. 4 seed David Ferrer, a US Open semifinalist last year. Nishikori snatched the first two sets but had to battle cramping in the third and fourth to come back to win the hour-long final set against the indefatigable Spaniard. The improbable win delighted the boisterous Armstrong Stadium crowd – which included Nishikori’s countrywoman, Ai Sugiyama, who made her way over to support him after her loss to Serena Williams.
The victory over Ferrer was Nishikori’s second over a top-20 player. Earlier this year Nishikori raised eyebrows when, as a qualifier ranked No. 244 in the world, he won his first career ATP title, beating James Blake in the final of Del Ray Beach. Nishikori also managed to take a set off Nadal on the grass at Queen’s Club, just two weeks before Nadal captured the Wimbledon crown.
Nishikori, from the coastal city of Shimane, Japan, moved – alone – to the U.S. at the age of 14 to attend the Bolletieri Academy in Bradenton, Fla.
“I couldn't speak English,” he said. “I was so nervous. I was like scary everything, all the American people.”
Nishikori is more than just raw potential. Against Ferrer, he demonstrated surprising polish and poise. When Ferrer stormed back to take sets three and four, few could have imagined that the teen, playing the biggest match of his career, could hang tough – overcoming cramps, no less – against a veteran known as a gritty competitor who never gives up.
When Nishikori struck a forehand winner to close out the match, he fell on his back as though he had just been crowned champion. That, he isn’t – not yet – though he is the first Japanese man to reach the US Open’s final 16 in the Open era.
The youngster looked shaky in an on-court interview, his legs visibly quivering. “I couldn't even move after the match,” he admitted.
For their efforts, Del Potro and Nishikori now take to the court on Labor Day, fittingly enough. The outcome may well depend on which of the exhausted teenagers has recovered from his previous match.
But they’re young, right?
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