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"Novak is back to an incredible level, hitting the ball very deep and hitting his points so well with the service," said Dante Bottini, one of Nishikori's coaches. "Kei did not play his best game today, but he did a good job, and Novak came up with the same thing or better. But I still think that the final will be very difficult. "
It will be the first Grand Slam final between Djokovic and Potro, but barely their first high-stakes duel. Djokovic leads the standings 14-4 and has won six of his last seven games, including his best match, a five-run semifinal of Wimbledon in 2013.
But Del Potro's only victory recently – in the first round of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 – was one of the slashes that caused the shock to Djokovic.
"The heartbreaking loss at the Olympics has hurt a lot, and it's probably there that I spent all that was left in the tank," he told ESPN recently.
At this point, he still held the four Grand Slam titles, including the American Open he won in 2015, defeating Roger Federer in front of a hostile crowd with a few brainstorming games.
"They were screaming" Roger! "And I imagined that they were screaming" Novak! "
He has not yet been fully adopted in New York, and although he will be Sunday's favorite against Del Potro, it's hard to imagine he'll be the crowd favorite.
The story of Del Potro returns to another level. Nine years have passed since he played his first Grand Slam final at the US Open, beating Federer in five rounds to win in 2009. Since then, four wrist surgeries, including three on the left wrist, took place. he was naturally considering retiring in 2015.
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