Nadal, Anderson advance to U.S. Open final

NEW YORK — Rafael Nadal did not allow Juan Martin del Potro to repeat history at the U.S. Open.

In 2009, del Potro beat both Nadal and Roger Federer en route to his only Grand Slam title at the Open. But after the Argentine stunned Federer this year in the quarterfinals, Nadal halted his run with a dominant 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2 victory in the semifinals before more than 23,000 hyped fans in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday night.

The star-studded crowd included Tiger Woods, who sat in Nadal’s player box, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Redford and Aziz Ansari.

Top-seeded Nadal will now face 6-foot-8 South African Kevin Anderson, a fellow 31-year-old and the No. 28 seed, in Sunday’s U.S. Open final.

Anderson reached his first Grand Slam final when he beat No. 12-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 in the first semifinal.

“It’s been an amazing season of course after a couple years with some troubles, injuries, tough moments,” Nadal told ESPN in his on-court interview. “Yeah, this year since the beginning has been a very emotional year. Means everything to me to be back in this amazing court in front of amazing crowd. (To) have the chance to fight for another title here is so important for me.”

Nadal improved to 15-0 in Grand Slam semifinals since del Potro beat him in New York in 2009. He will be a heavy favorite to win his 16th major title, and third U.S. Open crown, considering he is 4-0 against Anderson. Nadal won his 15th Grand Slam title and 10th French Open in May. In January, he lost to Federer in five sets in the Australian Open final.

If Nadal wins he would do so without beating a single top-10 seed, something that would be a first for a Grand Slam champion in the Open Era.

“Very tough one, no?” Nadal said of Anderson. “He’s a huge player with unbelievable serve and he plays so well in this kind of surfaces. He had some injuries but he’s a big example for the kids. He’s able to be back. I’m happy for him. I’ve known him since (he was) 12 years old. It’s great to see him in final in one of the most important events of the year.”

After breaking Nadal’s serve in the fifth game of the first set, del Potro held serve the rest of the way, taking the first set 6-4 with a massive forehand winner.

But things changed dramatically after that, with del Potro’s energy level dipping seriously as he lost nine straight games across the second and third sets. The del Potro fans, who had been raucous during the Federer match and in the first set against Nadal, went quiet as Nadal took his opponent out of the match.

After blanking del Potro in the second set, Nadal closed out the third with a forehand smash at the net and a couple of fist pumps for emphasis.

On match point, Nadal closed out the match with a backhand passing shot and then pumped his fist yet again.

“At the beginning of the second, I (knew) that something (had) to change,” Nadal said of his game plan. “And the only way to change is try to move him more to try be a little bit more unpredictable. Something had to change, I changed it. It worked very well and I’m very happy.”

After closing out the first semifinal, Anderson climbed over a flower pot and into the stands to hug his wife, Kelsey, and others in his player’s box.

“I really had to dig deep there,” Anderson, who smacked 22 aces in the match, said in his on-court interview with ESPN. “I think just my emotions at the end summed it up. I was just over the moon at the end. I’m going to allow myself tonight to really celebrate tonight’s win.”

Anderson, who played college tennis at the University of Illinois and resides in Gulf Stream, Fla., is the first South African man to reach a Grand Slam final since Kevin Curren advanced to the Wimbledon final in 1985. Johan Kriek, who was born in South Africa before becoming a naturalized American citizen, won the Australian Open in 1981 and ’82.

The bottom half of the draw opened up after No. 2 Andy Murray withdrew before the tournament with a hip injury and No. 4 Alexander Zverev and No. 5 Marin Cilic lost during the first week of the tournament. Carreno Busta became the highest remaining seed in the bottom half after No. 10 John Isner lost in the third round.

But it is Anderson and his huge serve — he has reached 137 mph during the tournament — that has come through to the final on the bottom half. The result is by far the best of his career, although he did reach the fourth round at both the French Open and Wimbledon this year.

He missed the Australian Open in January with a hip injury and said he was concerned he might have to have surgery and miss the remainder of the year.

“It was very difficult at the end of last year,” he said. “I was told that I probably needed to have surgery on my hip.

“Here I am just nine months after thinking I might have to undergo a year’s worth of recovery for surgery.”