With 2017 nearing its close, it's time to decide what was the year's best match. Steve Tignor will relive his top 10 contests over the next two weeks—but which was your favorite? We want to know, so vote for your favorite match in our poll.
Tennis Channel will air the Top 3 matches with the most votes on December 31st, in full.
Juan Martin del Potro d. Dominic Thiem 1-6, 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (1), 6-4, US Open, fourth round
At the end of the first set of their fourth-round match at Flushing Meadows, as Dominic Thiem and Juan Martin Del Potro traded sides, the Austrian shot a quick glance in the Argentine’s direction. It looked like he was checking to see if the flu-ridden Del Potro was going to put his hand out and say that he was calling it a day.
If only.
It was easy to see why Thiem thought it might be curtains for his opponent; pretty much everyone else in the Grandstand that afternoon suspected the same thing. Delpo wasn’t just having trouble running down balls, he was having trouble walking in a straight line between points. He wasn’t just missing shots, he was sending his forehand into the tarp at the back of the court on a regular basis. Thiem was free to swing away with little resistance, and he did, firing off backhand winners from well behind the baseline. He won the first two sets in 73 minutes, surrendering just three games.
While this highly-anticipated match-up had apparently fizzled into a dud, the crowd didn’t give up or walk away. In part that was because hundreds of them were Delpo fans; Argentina soccer shirts dotted the stands. But it was also because there was nowhere else to go. Scheduled at an odd, late-afternoon hour on a slow day, Delpo-Thiem was the only singles match happening at that moment. Wherever you went on the otherwise quiet grounds at the Open, you could hear the fans in the Grandstand singing and chanting for Del Potro, willing him to come back.
“I took all that energy to change in a good way and think about fight and not retire,” Delpo said.
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