In a world dominated by always on broadband Internet connections, it's hard for any athlete to sneak up on sports fans anymore. But over the past few weeks, with the sports world focusing relentlessly on the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, a 19-year old Argentine may very well have put himself in the best position to win the Men's Singles Title at this year's U.S. Open.The young man I'm talking about is 19th-ranked Juan-Martin Del Potro, and the reason to get excited about his prospects is that he hasn't lost a tennis match since he exited the second round of Wimbledon back on June 25. Toss in the fact that he's got the sort of looks that could win him a second career as a male model, and you can see why plenty of folks think he's ready to break out in a big way.
After an early exit from Wimbledon, Del Potro won a pair of clay court tournaments in Europe -- his first wins on the ATP Tour -- before decamping to the USA for the Countrywide Classic in Los Angeles where he beat Andy Roddick in the final in two sets. Here all week in Washington at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, it's been nothing but more of the same, as Del Potro ripped through his side of the bracket as the tournament's second seed, running his consecutive win streak to 18 matches. Meanwhile on the other side of the ladder, #1 seed Roddick was upended in the quarterfinals on Friday night by the unheralded Serbian Viktor Troicki, Del Potro's opposition in today's final.
The Serbian proved to be little more than a speed bump as Del Potro cruised to a 6-3, 6-3 victory, stretching his consecutive match streak to 19 and his tournament win streak to four. It's an astounding feat, as no other player has ever even won a second straight tournament after winning of the first of their career on the ATP tour, and now Del Potro has strung together four straight.Now there are some, with more than a little bit of reason, who would say that we shouldn't get too excited about what Del Potro has accomplished. After all, as ESPN's Cliff Drysdale noted in the aftermath of Del Potro's semifinal victory yesterday over Germany's Tommy Haas, much of the world's tennis talent has eschewed the hardcourt U.S. Open Series in favor of a shot at Olympic gold in Beijing -- a fact of life that has denuded the talent pool playing stateside over the past few weeks.
Still, 19 wins in a row and four straight tournament victories is an impressive achievement no matter the level of the opposition. And while Del Potro may very well have passed up the chance to win an Olympic medal for Argentina, there's more than something to be said about putting yourself in the proper position to win your first grand slam.
So while Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are celebrating gold medals in Beijing, they've still got to fly half way around the world to get to Flushing Meadows in time, while Del Potro could walk from Washington and still get to the Open ahead of most of the world's top players. Something tells me he'll find a way to use all that extra time to his advantage.
