After breaking his 12 years old own record of consecutive wins from 16 matches to 17 matches in two days ago, Roger Federer has to stop at the final. Del Potro won the championship by providing first defeat of the year to Federer, who reached the top of the ranking again by making age just a number, On the other hand, Japanese Naomi Osaka won the first major title of her career after defeating Russian Daria Kasatkina in the final, and with her career’s best ranking 22nd.
Del Potro won his 1st ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles in a 6-4, 6-7, 7-6 over Federer in a dramatic manner in the final of the tournament held in California on Sunday. Federer lost 6-4 in the 1st set, but the second set was packed in full of action. Del Potro held a match point at 8-7 in the second set tiebreaker and then lost the last 3 points. So, the match moves towards the third-set. In the third set tiebreaker, Del Potro raced to a 6-1 lead. With the third match point, he finishes the game on a high. It stalled Federer’s winning rally and Del Potro won the third major title of his career.
Del Potro made a very promising start with unlimited possibilities by winning 2009 US Open. But he has to spend more times in the hospital than the courts from 2010 to 2015. During this period, he had to go down under the knife of the surgeon 14 times, in addition to four major surgical procedures in the wrist. Because of that fact, he thought about ending his career. But in 2016, Del Potro returned to the limelight after winning the Davis Cup for Argentina. Though he started the Indian Wells Open quite silently, with the title once again he reminded the tennis world of his talent and possibilities.
Expressing his feelings after the match, he said, “It’s difficult to describe in words. “It’s like a dream. I’ve been working hard to get this, and I did it after all my problems, all my surgeries. I can’t believe I’m here and winning a Masters 1000, beating Roger. It’s amazing.”
On the other hand, the tennis world has seen a new sensation in women’s singles finals. Japanese Naomi Osaka, who was in talks for last few tournaments as the rising star. She started the tournament with 44th number position in the women’s ranking. Osaka’s victory capped a run that included beating top-ranked Simona Halep, 5th Karolina Pliskova and Maria Sharapova. She dropped Only one set in the whole tournament. And what should we say about the final? She just blown up Russian Daria Kasatkina in the desert sand in 6-3, 6-2 in 70 munites.
After the match she said, “I don’t really know what’s going on right now,” Osaka said, smiling. “I really feel like I have another match I have to play tomorrow, and it didn’t really sink in that I won.”
Oh, we forgot to tell something interesting about Osaka. Although Osaka is actually representing Japanese tennis, she is partly Haitian, partly Japanese and rests American. All right, let us clear the fact. Naomi Osaka was born in Osaka, Japan in 1997 to a Haitian father and Japanese mother, then she moved to America at the age of three and currently residing in Florida.