Juan Martín Del Potro Dethrones Roger Federer to Win US Open Men’s Title.

2009 US Open Men's Singles Champion Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG)[6].

Juan Martin del Potro dethroned Federer as the US Open champion, ending his five-year reign as the men’s best worldwide tennis player earning his first major title in a come-from-behind 3-6, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2 victory.

It was the first five set men’s final since 1999, when Andre Agassi defeated Todd Martin and one of the biggest US Open matches. It was Del Potro’s first career victory over Federer in seven matches. The new champion, with just 20 years old, became the second Argentine in history to win the US Open, joining Guillermo Vilas, who won in 1977.

2009 US Open Men's Singles Champion Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG)[6] and Finalist Roger Federer (SUI)[1]

He dropped onto his back, looking like a towering snow angel in search of the first fall signs of winter flurries and later gave a tearful thanks to his family and friends back in Tandil.
“My dream is done. It's over,” said Del Potro, who became the first Argentine male to win the title since Guillermo Vilas in 1977. “I will go home with a trophy, and it's the best sensation ever in my life.


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US Open Torunament History

The US Open, the one being enjoyed at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center originally started during a tournament started 127 years ago. It featured from exclusive men's singles and doubles tournament in 1881 to a two-week sports, changing its name from the U.S Championships to the US Open and its location from Rhode Island to Pennsylvania to its current home in Flushing, N.Y.

The first U.S. National Singles Championship for men was held at the Newport Casino in Newport, R.I., in August 1881, the beginning of a 34-year run for Newport as the center of tennis in the United States. Only clubs that were members of the United States National Lawn Tennis Association were permitted to enter the initial tournament. Men's doubles was played in conjunction with men's singles at the Newport Casino for the event's first seven years, 1881-1886, before the U.S. Championships grew and spread out to other locales.

In 1887, six years after the men's nationals were instituted as an annual event, the first official U.S. Women's National Singles Championship was held at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, joined by women's doubles in 1889. The U.S. Mixed Doubles Championship officially began in 1892 and was played in conjunction with the women's singles and women's doubles until 1921, when it was combined with the men's doubles program of the U.S. National Championships.

The five major events of the U.S. National Championships/US Open have been contested at nine different locations since the inception of the men's singles event in Newport. All five finally came together when the women's doubles tournament moved to the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, N.Y., at the advent of the Open Era in 1968, and all five moved to the US Open's current location, the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y., in 1978.

Overall, the West Side Tennis Club has hosted the most championships, 210, with the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center standing at 150 through 2007. Men's doubles has been played at the greatest number of sites (eight), while women's singles has been the least traveled, having only been hosted by the Philadelphia Cricket Club, the West Side Tennis Club and the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

A total of $100,000 was offered by the USTA to the field of 96 men and 64 women who entered the men's and women's singles and doubles at the 1968 US Open. Today, the US Open offers more than $20.6 million to a field of more than 600 men and women, including qualifying. In 2004, the US Open added the Olympus US Open Series Bonus Challenge, potentially pushing the 2008 US Open prize money to $23.2 million.

[Source: US Open 2009 Official Web]

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