NEW YORK — Rafael Nadal went into his U.S. Open semifinal against Juan Martin del Potro with a relatively simple game plan: Stay away from the big guy’s flat, fearsome forehand and instead go after his weaker backhand.
Nadal tried that strategy just long enough to drop the opening set. Once he scrapped in on the fly, everything changed, and it didn’t take long for him to power into the final.
Closing in on a third title at Flushing Meadows and 16th Grand Slam championship overall, Nadal overcame a so-so start with an overwhelming performance the rest of the way Friday night, taking nine games in a row during one stretch to beat 2009 champion del Potro 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2.
“I was wrong in the way that I was trying to play, no? … I started to understand a little bit better what I needed to do to try to be a little bit more unpredictable, because he was waiting for me in his backhand side,” Nadal said. “He only had to cover 60 percent of the court most of the time.”
Once the Spanish lefty started hitting more forehands down the line to the righty del Potro’s backhand, Nadal explained, “I was more unpredictable, and he was more in trouble, because he didn’t know where to go.”
His opponent’s take?
“He played so smart from the second set until the end of the match,” del Potro said. “He was dominant.”
No. 1 Nadal will be a significant favorite Sunday against No. 32 Kevin Anderson of South Africa, who beat Pablo Carreno Busta 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 to become the lowest-ranked U.S. Open finalist since the ATP’s computer rankings began in 1973. The 6-foot-8 (2.03-meter) Anderson, who won an NCAA doubles title at the University of Illinois, is equipped with a big serve, certainly, but he only once had even been a quarterfinalist at a major until this week. He’s also lost all four previous matches against Nadal.