Both Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro have battled serious injury to get back to the top. The two friends are both previous US Open champions but sympathy will be put aside in Sunday's final.
Image: Reuters/T. Melville
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There have been times in the last few years where Juan Martin del Potro wondered whether he'd ever play tennis again, let alone have the chance to win a second Grand Slam at the same place he won his first nine years ago.
"I couldn't find a way to fix my wrist problems. I [was] suffering a lot," the Argentinian said of his low point in 2015. "I got depressed for a couple of months, also. I didn't get the chance to feel better with myself, to do this again. That was the bad moment for me.
"But I think that is completely in the past. And now I'm having a good present looking forward for the future. Everything is almost perfect."
The 1.98-meter (6-foot-6) player had to remodel his backhand almost entirely after his injury woes and has been rewarded with a Flushing Meadows final against a man with whom he shares a mutual admiration, Novak Djokovic.
"I personally like him very much, not just as a player but as a person. He's a dear friend, someone that I respect a lot," said Djokovic of his opponent.
"We all felt for his struggles with injuries that kept him away from the tour for two, three years," Djokovic said. "But he was always a top-five player in my eyes."
Relatable recovery
The Serb, who is on the brink of a fourteenth Grand Slam final but has won just two of his seven finals in New York, has also had significant injury problems of late.
He dealt with pain in his right elbow for nearly two years before opting to sit out the last half of 2017, missing the U.S. Open among other events and, after a brief attempt to play at the start of this season, had an operation in February. Now he is one win from a second consecutive Grand Slam title after his triumph at Wimbledon in July.
"It absolutely gives me empathy. Even before I went through the whole process of surgery, post-surgery recovery, I was still feeling for players that went through injuries," Djokovic said.
His big match pedigree means Djokovic is favorite to pick up another major win but there are few that would begrudge del Potro another moment in the sun
"I didn't know if I will be a tennis player again or not. But I'm here," he said. "I'm excited to keep surprising the tennis world as I did myself."
US Open: The big one in the Big Apple
"If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere," as Frank Sinatra once put it. This statement could just as easily be applied to the loudest, most demanding tennis tournament in the world, the US Open.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/J. Samad
The sky is the limit
Nowak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka battled it out on in the men's final on Center Court in 2016. This photo gives you a rough impression of the view you would have had if you had managed to get yourself a ticket for a seat in the nosebleeds. Wawrinka would go on to win this duel.
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Arthur Ashe
Arthur Ashe used a wooden racket when he played in the Forest Hills stadium in Queens, New York in 1965. In 1978, the tournament moved to its larger site at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows. The main court, which holds more than 22,000 spectators, is named after Athur Ashe.
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Pete could do with a bucket...
The matches can be long and the weather is usually hot and humid. This can take a toll on the players. In 1996, a few minutes after this picture was shot, the great Pete Sampras actually threw up on the court during his match against Alex Corretja. We could have shown you that, but you didn’t really want to see it, did you?
Image: Getty Images/S. Botterill
Quiet please!
If you are looking for a quiet game of tennis, the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is not the place for you! It happens to be located close to LaGuardia Airport. If you don’t like the noise you can complain, but making yourself heard could pose a problem...
Image: imago/UPI Photo
When Serena was still a bad girl
"Foot fault," cried the woman on the chair during this 2009 match. Serena Williams was having nothing of it and did her best to make this clear. The line judge jumped out of her chair and…
Image: Getty Images/J. Finney
"I didn't say that!"
…ran to the net and told the match referee, who called the head referee. He ordered Williams’ semifinal match against Kim Clijsters abandoned and awarded it to the Belgian. It was widely reported that Williams had threatened to shove a tennis ball down the line judge’s throat, something that the American denied having said.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/T.A. Clary
Cramp-plagued Marcos Baghdatis
IN 2006, Marcos Baghdatis struggled through a his match against Andre Agassi. Plagued by cramps, he struggled to complete its. Baghdatis is still on the tour, Agassi, of course, retired years ago.
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Andre's second-last match
The match, in which Baghdatis wound up unable to run around the court was the second last in the career of Andre Agassi in New York. The crowd gave both men a standing ovation after Agassi won 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 7-5. In his 2010 autobiography "Open," Agassi described his pain both on and off the tennis court.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/D. Emmert
Stefanie Graf's backhand
Stefanie Graf rarely made mistakes with her backhand but her forehand was even better. In 1988 she faced Argentina’s Gabriela Sabatini in the US Open final and won 6-3, 3-6, and 6-1. Sabatini went on to have her own line of perfume, but Graf became a legend, helping, along with Boris Becker, to spark a tennis boom in Germany.
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A happy Angie Kerber
It would take until 2016 for another German to win at Flushing Meadows. This photo is from September 11, 2016, a day after Angelique Kerber had beaten Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic in the final. Since then, things haven't gone her way. Kerber lost her No. 1 spot in the women's rankings - despite the absence of Serena Williams.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Cj Gunther
Can't forget Jimmy
How could we forget this guy? He was in his prime when US men’s tennis was still powerful and nobody had heard of John McEnroe yet. Jimmy Connors, in this picture no longer using his old metal racket, won the US Open five times. His two-handed backhanders changed the men’s game.
Image: Getty Images/V
Boris won here too...
Here’s another guy we can’t forget. This is Boris Becker after beating Ivan Lendl 7-6, 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 in the 1989 final. The often ill-tempered Lendl went on to become a cool golfer and even cooler coach. Becker is still his happy-go-lucky self. Last year he was appointed the "head of men’s tennis" by the German Tennis Association (DTB).
Image: Imago/Norbert Schmidt
Legendary support
Alexander Zverev (above left) is still looking for his first Grand Slam and he has enlisted former Grand Slam winner Ivan Lendl (right) to help him refine his game. The men's No. 4 failed to make it past the second round in his two previous appearances at the US Open. The 21-year-old German is hoping that Lendl's tactical knowledge will help carry him much deeper in 2018.