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Two of tennis' young guns will clash in today's men's Open final in Auckland, with 20-year-old top seed Juan Martin Del Potro taking on 21-year-old American prospect Sam Querrey.
Both men are at the top of their games, boasting career-high rankings. Tall and with big serves, there are
also plenty of similarities in their games. Yesterday, though, they travelled vastly different paths to reach the final.
Del Potro, the world No 9, was untroubled in dispatching Swedish third seed Robin Soderling in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3 in 1h 16m. Querrey needed three sets and survived two match points before defeating Spanish second seed and 2007 champion David Ferrer.
Querrey will be a raging underdog for the match but there are omens that point in his favour. The only previous time he has successfully come from match point down was against Sebastien Grosjean in the first round in Las Vegas last year. He went on to win the tournament, his first and only ATP title.
That success came on the back of a run of early tournament exits. Last week Querrey was thrashed by Soderling in the first round in Brisbane and he was happy to ponder the parallels.
"I went into Vegas saying 'I'm just going to have fun, swing away and not really care what happens' I am going to try to do that [today]."
For Ferrer it was a match that got away - and he knew it. "It is tough [to take]," he said.
"I was a break up in the third two times and had two match points, but he played braver than me on the important moments and he won."
It was assessment Querrey agreed with. Despite dropping the first set 6-3 the big American continued to go for his shots.
That aggressive approach paid dividends and he quickly got on top in the second set.
"I was winding up on some of those [points], especially on the forehand side, and hitting it as hard as I could. I missed some of them by 10 feet but I think that's what you've got to do."
The reversal of fortunes was too much for Ferrer, who destroyed his racquet against the net post after double-faulting to go a break behind.
The Spaniard got back on serve three games later but Querrey immediately broke back and then produced a rasping 223km/h serve on the way to serving out the set.
Ferrer regained his composure in the third set and his outstanding rallying ability seemed likely to take him to victory as Querrey's serve began to falter.
The Spaniard served for the match at 5-3 but Querrey strung together one of his best games of the tournament to break back to 15.
The American's serve was still misfiring, though, and he fell behind 15-40 as he attempted to take the match to a deciding tiebreak. Ferrer saw second serves on both match points but Querrey somehow rallied his way out of trouble to force the tiebreak.
Querrey's booming serve finally proved the difference as he connected with all six first serves in the tiebreak to blast the world No 12 off the court.
The American's approach of mixing up his game eventually prospered but for much of the match it seemed Ferrer's unrivalled ability to cover the court and unerring groundstrokes would book the Spaniard a second Heineken Open final in three years.
"He is probably the fastest guy out there," Querrey said.
"He gets a lot of balls [back]. He makes you work for every point, it is really annoying. Most guys don't do that but he makes you hit an extra shot every time."
Today's match against Del Potro won't feature such a clash of styles.
Both men have big serves and hit the ball hard but the Argentinian probably has the edge in the athleticism stakes.
"I've got to do what I did [yesterday], be aggressive and take some chances, run around second serves and try to crack a forehand as hard as I can, sneak to the net if I can," Querrey said.
In defeating Soderling, Del Potro became the first Argentinian to make the Open final, breaking a run of six straight semifinal defeats for players from the South American nation.
If he can nullify Querrey's serve and keep the game played predominantly from the baselines, he should go one step further and take the title.
In today's doubles final (1pm) which precedes the singles, top seeds Martin Damm (Czech Republic) and Robert Lindstedt (Sweden) will play second seeds Scott Lipsky (US) and Leander Paes (India).
