It has been a wonderful run for me to observe over the years. No other sport artist has broght me more awe or joy in watching. I don't know how he maintained any concentration with two 1 month babies. He and his wife have never spent time apart. He truly is a wonderful spirit

Ricky, I told you Delpo's victory here reminds me of Fed's win against Sampras.

Fed seems to agree.

FED's THE BEST EVER!!!

Q. So far Rafa is the only one to defeat you in a major final. How do you feel about this other name coming into that list?

ROGER FEDERER: No problem. He deserved it. He played well. I don't know what to say. Rafa, we've had some epic ones, sure, great ones over the years. Who knows, maybe Del Potro is gonna to join that as well. I wish him all the best for the future. That's for sure

Best of wishes from the Fed, I think Fed see a lot of himself in Delpo. The cool demeanor is so similiar.

thxs johan!
RF was sincerely happy for Juan, regardless of tensions over hawk-eye during match. Rog was complimentary of Juan after the FO semi too. It was clear how much Juan wanted to win that match after the FO; also clear to anyone paying attention was how much Delpo respects Federer for who he is. Even more to Delpo's own credit is the fact that he hung in there and seized the victory as Roger struggled. Though, the trophy presentation was an embarrassment due to Enburg and his failure to allow Juan proper time to thank his supporters and family in Spanish, what was wonderful to see was the interaction between winner and runner-up. When Juan began to tear-up, Roger put a hand on his back.

As to Roger Federer, very well said Vitality!

to the dweeb anti-fans : you would not understand that johan is talking about RF 16 masters series wins, duh.

15 GS titles
16 masters titles

Roger Federer you are absolutely the Greatest, thank-you.

Congrats to Juan and hope you can win many more!!

Federer is praising DELPO because he is so worried that Nadal will get back # 1
OMG he wishes anyone to be # 1 except his 13-7 spicy smasher
LOL

smartcuty, i usually read thru comments b4 work ( morning my time ) and i don't know if you used to be a poster here b4 i came on last march, but i have never read you until late last night and i must say, at first i laughed so hard! but my sense of humor is sometimes a little dark. i am a good person in life but just think we humans get too serious. not that there isn't plenty to be serious about, but it's a relief to laugh. Example: i laughed at the absurdity of hearing RF drop the s-bomb and his awful record at hawk-eye challenges. even as i believe his tennis ( imo ) is the greatest, i am not blind to the fact he is mortal thus, imperfect- takes himself too seriously in the case of hawk-eye.

But your posts smartcuty, became less funny and more redundantly boring, sorry to say. But that is my opinion and obviously you are welcome and at home on TT with the other anti-fed fans. lol....

ps -your rants do not offend me as i am used to it here by now. in fact the angrier and more worked up u get, the sillier it is and it does become very amusing!! like when you tell collective fedfans that they are birds of a dirty feather who fluck together, LOL....makes me think of a character from South Park! i'd prefer to think of you as some highly imaginative writer like Matt Stone but sadly, it does seem you are serious.

But i don't find Serena's threat to shove a f'ing tennis ball down the umpires throat amusing at all!

however your bad language, as i know, may truly offend many readers!

cheers and thxs for the giggle

Federer has one more rival for top spot

By Jim Slater (AFP) ? 9 hours ago

NEW YORK ? World number one Roger Federer began the US Open fortnight with a new top rival for his tennis throne in Andy Murray and ended the year's last Grand Slam with yet another formidable challenger.

Juan Martin Del Potro joined the No. 1 conversation with a shocking 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2 victory over the Swiss star in Monday's US Open final, the 1.98 metre Argentine giant snapping Federer's five-year title run.

Del Potro, who turns 21 next week, jumped into fifth in the latest ATP rankings by winning his Grand Slam final debut.

Federer remained first despite the loss with Spain's injury-hampered Rafael Nadal moving back into second on the list past Murray, who stumbled badly in a fourth-round loss to Croatia's Marin Cilic, and Novak Djokovic placed fourth.

"I have very good players from me to the No. 1," Del Potro said. "For sure, Roger, Rafa, Murray, they are two or three steps more than me. I'm working hard every day hard to be like them.

"But if I play for many years in this level, then they are going to retire and I'm going to be much better."

Time is not all that is on the South American's side.

His formidable forehand and improved fitness caught the eye of 15-time Grand Slam winner Federer when he was forced to rally from two sets down to beat him in a French Open semi-final.

"Every month he was getting better," Federer said. "He was hitting his serves better, from the baseline he was getting more confident. He knows much more now what he needs to do on the tennis court.

"Whereas maybe in the beginning, because he's so tall, he needs to figure out his game, I think he did that in the last six months."

Del Potro sees himself as far from a finished product, but it's bad news for every rival if he can only get better.

"I have everything to learn," Del Potro said. "I want to be a good player in the future. I want to be like them. I'm very happy I'm on my way."

With Nadal nursing strained stomach muscles and already out two months with sore knees and Murray turning in a miserable showing to help clear Del Potro's path to the trophy, the door is open for the big man to climb up the rankings.

Del Potro had lost all six prior meetings with Federer, including a five-set thriller in the French Open semi-finals, but became the only man other than Nadal to defeat Federer in a Grand Slam final.

"I just go my way and try to improve every day my game," Del Potro said. "Of course I'm living much better than two years ago, maybe 12 months ago. But I'm in good shape. I'm physically feeling good with my tennis. That's important."

Federer has one more rival for top spot

By Jim Slater (AFP) ? 9 hours ago

NEW YORK ? World number one Roger Federer began the US Open fortnight with a new top rival for his tennis throne in Andy Murray and ended the year's last Grand Slam with yet another formidable challenger.

Juan Martin Del Potro joined the No. 1 conversation with a shocking 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2 victory over the Swiss star in Monday's US Open final, the 1.98 metre Argentine giant snapping Federer's five-year title run.

Del Potro, who turns 21 next week, jumped into fifth in the latest ATP rankings by winning his Grand Slam final debut.

Federer remained first despite the loss with Spain's injury-hampered Rafael Nadal moving back into second on the list past Murray, who stumbled badly in a fourth-round loss to Croatia's Marin Cilic, and Novak Djokovic placed fourth.

"I have very good players from me to the No. 1," Del Potro said. "For sure, Roger, Rafa, Murray, they are two or three steps more than me. I'm working hard every day hard to be like them.

"But if I play for many years in this level, then they are going to retire and I'm going to be much better."

Time is not all that is on the South American's side.

His formidable forehand and improved fitness caught the eye of 15-time Grand Slam winner Federer when he was forced to rally from two sets down to beat him in a French Open semi-final.

"Every month he was getting better," Federer said. "He was hitting his serves better, from the baseline he was getting more confident. He knows much more now what he needs to do on the tennis court.

"Whereas maybe in the beginning, because he's so tall, he needs to figure out his game, I think he did that in the last six months."

Del Potro sees himself as far from a finished product, but it's bad news for every rival if he can only get better.

"I have everything to learn," Del Potro said. "I want to be a good player in the future. I want to be like them. I'm very happy I'm on my way."

With Nadal nursing strained stomach muscles and already out two months with sore knees and Murray turning in a miserable showing to help clear Del Potro's path to the trophy, the door is open for the big man to climb up the rankings.

Del Potro had lost all six prior meetings with Federer, including a five-set thriller in the French Open semi-finals, but became the only man other than Nadal to defeat Federer in a Grand Slam final.

"I just go my way and try to improve every day my game," Del Potro said. "Of course I'm living much better than two years ago, maybe 12 months ago. But I'm in good shape. I'm physically feeling good with my tennis. That's important."

Delpotro has big problems dealing with grass & clay courts, therefore in order for him to be on top level like Rafa & Fedex, he has to improve a lot on those (2) courts otherwise there is not much future for him & he will be like Murray, Djoko & Roddick now

Grass courts: Fedex & Rafa then Andy Roddick
Clay courts: Rafa is the best then Djokovic
Hard courts: Fedex, Delpo, Murray then Djokovic
If Delpo wants to be a complete player he has to improve his grass court or his clay courts if not both, because champions like Fedex & Rafa are good almost on every type of court

I seem to remember Nadal only being good on clay when he emerged and that got him to #2. Later, he would improve immensely on grass and hard courts. Del Potro already made it to SF at FO and with his huge serve he can do well on grass also. He has shown he can deal with the big moments now in Grand Slams. The main thing I believe he has to work on is his fitness. Once he does that he will be # 1 sooner that Fed and Nadal would like. He said in the trophy ceremony that he wanted to accomplish 2 things: to win the USO and to be like the Fed. What more could any tennis player hope to achieve? He's on his way.

Johan, Ricky, i'm not sure who i should be directing this too. anyway, i noticed that some comments i made earlier have been deleted; however, i was not informed directly. the comments were not inappropriate, therefore, i'm confused!. nonetheless, if there is problem with my participating in discussions or if my opinions are not welcomed here, i would think that you would have enough professionalism to be upfront about it. i certainly would prefer it that way. if that is the case and there is something that i need to know, please don't beat around the bush. if you don't feel the need to address me directly, rest assure, i can read-between-the-lines!

memi - I thought I had made it clear already, but perhaps not: I am not the admin; I don't delete posts.

But I'm guessing if one of your posts was deleted, then it must have been inappropriate. Or perhaps you just forgot to click send. Other than that, I have no idea.

Maybe if you post it again I will be able to tell you if it was inappropriate or not.

memi, the reason why some comments are missing it that we moved our hardware to a new location. We used a temporary server while moving, and some of the comments posted during this short period were lost, unfortunately.