At the start of the 2017 season, Rafael Nadal was clinging to a Top 10 position in the Emirates ATP Rankings at No. 9. Having concluded his 2016 campaign early due to a wrist injury, the state of the Spaniard’s game was in question. Would he return to his top form? Could he contend for big titles again?

Nadal has since swept away those questions with authority, eliminating any doubts of his ability to reclaim his mantle atop the Emirates ATP Rankings. Eight months later, the Manacor native is putting the rest of the ATP World Tour on notice with vintage Nadal performances. Boasting the energy, passion and offensive onslaught that have seen him finish at year-end No. 1 on three occasions, the 31 year old surged past Juan Martin del Potro to book his spot in a fourth US Open final on Sunday.

As Nadal vies for his third title at Flushing Meadows, having previously lifted the trophy with victories over Novak Djokovic in both 2010 and 2013, he admits that it is his consistent play over the entire season that has enabled him to return to this elite level.

“I tell you, for me what is more important, more than winning Slams, is to be happy,” said Nadal. “I am happy if I am healthy and if I feel competitive in most of the weeks that I am playing. That’s what has happened this year. So I am very happy about what happened, very happy to win Monte-Carlo, Barcelona, Madrid and Roland Garros. I am very happy to be in the final here in the US Open.

“Of course winning or losing this final is a big change, but I am very happy about all the things that happened to me and I am going to fight to win another title here. Still it is a great season for me. If I win, I will be more happy but it is about being healthy and feeling well and competitive. That’s already happened in the whole season. So that’s the most important thing for me.”

Should Nadal prevail on Sunday, it would mark the first time in his career in which he has rallied from a set down in three matches en route to a title. He has battled hard throughout the fortnight, coming back to overcome Taro Daniel in the second round, Leonardo Mayer in the third round and del Potro in the semi-finals.

The last obstacle in Nadal’s path: South Africa’s Kevin Anderson. The top seed leads the FedEx ATP Head2Head 4-0, dropping just one set, and is keen to continue his positive momentum in Sunday’s championship. They most recently met in the third round of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell in April, which Nadal claimed 6-3, 6-4.

He would go on to take the title in Barcelona, his second of four victories this year. Having opened the season with runner-up finishes on the hard courts of the Australian Open, Acapulco and ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Miami, Nadal has since reeled off four straight wins in title matches, adding trophies in Monte-Carlo, Madrid and Roland Garros to his triumph in Barcelona. He is leading the pack in the Emirates ATP Race To London, surging to a 1,000-point advantage over Federer.

Open Era US Open Title Leaders

Having lifted an unprecedented 10th trophy at Roland Garros in June, he will look to further cement himself in Grand Slam immortality. Currently with 15 Grand Slam titles, a win in New York would put him three behind Roger Federer for the all-time lead titles lead. It has been a long, but fruitful, journey.

“I felt when I arrived in Australia that I was playing at a very high level, but then you need to win matches. I was playing well, but then you need to do it in the competition. Of course if you practise well and you feel well, you have more chances to win matches in the events, in the tournaments. It’s about confidence.

“It’s about things that when you are on court comes automatic. You don’t have to think about what you are doing in some moments, the important moments. Things come straightaway without thinking that much, and all these things happen only when you are in a good moment, in a good way winning a lot of matches in a row.

“Now what remains in the last match is a very tough opponent and I need to be ready for it. It is a very important match for me, so I am going to try my best to play my best.”

It was a heroic fortnight for Juan Martin del Potro at the US Open. But the 2009 champion saw his fairytale run come to an end on Friday evening at Flushing Meadows, succumbing to Rafael Nadal 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2 in the semi-finals.

Del Potro started strong, launching his forehand and backhand to claim the opener after 50 minutes. Despite being overcome by fatigue, the Argentine gave full credit to his opponent, as Nadal seized the initiative with an aggressive mindset in the second, third and fourth sets.

“Today I think he had the game to win, to beat me, and to win the tournament,” del Potro told the assembled media following the match. “He played very smart from the second until the end of the match, because I was just standing all the time on my left side and once he played down the line, he won the point.

“I think at the beginning of the match, he was playing all the time to my backhand, trying to see how good is my backhand at this moment. It was good, but it wasn’t good enough to play a four-set, five-set match. And I couldn’t make any winners in the match, which you must do a lot of winners against Rafa.”

Del Potro inspired the tennis world at the US Open. The Tandil native went from being on the verge of falling over while struggling with the flu and a fever against Dominic Thiem in the Round of 16, to stunning Roger Federer two days later. He fought off two match points to defeat Thiem, storming back from 1-6, 2-6 down, before stopping a highly anticipated Nadal-Federer semi-final with an upset of the Swiss on Wednesday.

After four wrist surgeries, del Potro showed the heart that endeared him to a legion of fans throughout his career. It was his first appearance in the last four of a Grand Slam since Wimbledon 2013.

“I’m just tired. I’ve been exhausted after the Thiem match and the Roger match. I had a flu during the week. So I had many problems before this match, but I was very motivated to play the semi-final in my best tournament. I think he just played better than me. He deserved to win and I did all my best, all my effort to survive this match, but I couldn’t do well.”

On Monday, del Potro will return to the Top 25 of the Emirates ATP Rankings for the first time since October 2014. Projected to move to No. 24, the top Argentine was appearing in his second tour-level semi-final of the year (Delray Beach).

Clambering into the stands – all 6’8” of him – to embrace his family and team, Kevin Anderson’s post-match celebration on Friday was more akin to that of the US Open champion than of a semi-final victor. There was more to it though than the elation of reaching a first Grand Slam final at age 31, after a four-set triumph over No. 12 seed Pablo Carreno Busta.

Granted it was arguably the best shot either man would have earned at reaching a Grand Slam final. But for Anderson, it was as much about the reward of having bounced back from a frustrating two years riddled with injuries. The South African started the season at No. 80 in the Emirates ATP Rankings after an injury-ravaged 2016. It was his lowest mark since August 2010.

Hip, leg and right elbow injuries have hindered much of this season, while last year, it was ankle surgery, groin, left knee and right shoulder complaints.

“I felt deep inside I always had a chance, but, I mean, I feel like you sort of put that at bay and focus on each match,” he said. “That’s what I have done. Here I am, almost two weeks later in the final, so that’s obviously a great feeling.”

Now he stands one win from an improbable breakthrough. At No. 28 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, Anderson is the lowest-ranked man into a US Open final since the Emirates ATP Rankings began in 1973.

He is the first South African to reach the final since Cliff Drysdale at the US Championships in 1965; the first into a Grand Slam final since Kevin Curren reached the 1984 Australian Open final. He will become the first South African since Johan Kriek (1981 Australian Open) to claim a Grand Slam title should he go one step further. (Kriek represented the United States when he defended his Australian Open crown in 1982).

“My biggest hope is I’m able to inspire the kids to get out and play, because it can definitely feel like it’s a long road being so far from everything,” Anderson said. “I feel like when I’m back, I often speak at several schools, the school that I went to, I’m often giving talks and talking about that sort of stuff. As much as I can, I try and have an impact

“I try and focus on the youth coming up, and I think tennis is a great sport regardless of how far you make it, just obviously a lot of good life lessons.”

Having worked his way up through the ranks of South African tennis, Anderson spent three seasons playing college tennis in the United States at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2005-2007. It proved an ideal stepping stone into the professional ranks.

He is the first player with college tennis ties since Todd Martin (1999 US Open) to reach a Grand Slam final. Many of of his best results have come on North American hard courts.

In 2015, he made his Top 10 debut in the Emirates ATP Rankings soon after beating Andy Murray to reach the US Open quarter-finals. Two of his three ATP World Tour titles (Winston-Salem 2015, Delray Beach 2012) have come in the United States; his maiden title on home soil in Johannesburg in 2011.

A run to the final at the Citi Open, in Washington D.C. and to the quarter-finals at the Coupe Rogers leading in were a sign Anderson was beginning to find his feet again. His battles now are as much mental as they are physical. But it is an element Anderson has been willing to embrace a factor which could prove the most telling factor in his latest surge.

“If you look at some of the best players that we have seen over the years and that I have been playing with, mentally they are the best competitors, as well, something I have worked hard on,” Anderson said.

“I feel like for me, some of the challenges have been to trust my ability a little bit more. I have always been very critical about myself. I feel like I’m just being a bit more patient with myself. I feel like that’s been a big change I have implemented in the last few months.”

Vintage Rafael Nadal was on full display on Friday at the US Open. Behind a bevy of bludgeoning blasts and a hyper-aggressive gameplan, the World No. 1 will play for his third title in New York after streaking past Juan Martin del Potro 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2.

Racing around the court and attacking off the ground with authority, Nadal secured his place in a fourth US Open final after two hours and 30 minutes. After dropping the opening set, Nadal sprinted to the finish line with a clinical performance, striking 45 winners, to just 20 unforced errors.

In what has been a resurgent 2017 campaign, the Spaniard made a statement in his bid to finish the year atop the Emirates ATP Rankings. Now a three-time Grand Slam finalist this year, Nadal will face Kevin Anderson for the crown at Flushing Meadows.

In total, Nadal will bid for a 16th Grand Slam title in what will be his fifth meeting with Anderson. He leads 4-0, with just one set lost. The Spaniard’s last hard-court title came in Doha in 2014.

“After a couple of years of tough moments, it has been an emotional year,” Nadal told ESPN in the post-match interview. “But being back on this amazing court and in front of this amazing crowd, and having the chance to fight for this title is amazing for me.”

It was sweet revenge for Nadal, who extended his FedEx ATP Head2Head advantage over del Potro to 9-5, emerging victorious in their first encounter at the US Open since winning just six games in the 2009 semi-finals. He has now claimed 15 consecutive Grand Slam semi-final wins since that defeat eight years ago, and has halted a two-match skid against the big-hitting Argentine, who had most recently prevailed in a deciding tie-break at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

“I played well,” said Nadal. “It was an important day for me. An important victory against a great opponent. I am playing well almost the whole season. So today was the day to play well (smiling). That’s the real thing. I was playing so-so at the beginning of the tournament and I have been playing better and better every day.

“Today was the day to play the best match of the tournament since that moment, because I played against the toughest opponent in that moment, and that opponent as I said before, was coming with big confidence. I woke up today and said to myself that today is the day that I’ll play with the right energy and I needed to increase the level of my game.

“And I knew that. A lot of times I know that and it didn’t happen, but today it happened. I felt that I was playing at the right level to win the match. And I did and I’m very happy.”

With actors Robert Redford and Leonardo DiCaprio, golfing legend Tiger Woods and fashion icon Anna Wintour in attendance, del Potro seized the first break for 3-2 as a forehand struck the net cord and dribbled over. The fortuitous bounce would be all the luck the Argentine needed, closing out the opener with eight of 10 service points won. He would punctuate the first set with a forehand fired down the line, his 12th winner.

Both players came out swinging on a brisk summer evening in New York. Nadal entered the semi-final with a tournament-leading 58 per cent of baseline points won, but it was del Potro who unloaded from the back of the court in the initial proceedings. Looking to create space with his thunderous forehand and blasting his backhand with full force, he pushed Nadal off the baseline and sent an early message.

With actors Robert Redford and Leonardo DiCaprio, golfing legend Tiger Woods and fashion icon Anna Wintour in attendance, del Potro seized the first break for 3-2 as a forehand struck the net cord and dribbled over. The fortuitous bounce would be all the luck the Argentine needed, closing out the opener with eight of 10 service points won. He would punctuate the first set with a forehand fired down the line, his 12th winner.

But as Nadal has done throughout his career, he found a way to flip the momentum in a flash. The swing was swift and sudden. The Spaniard was more hestitant to pull the trigger on his forehand down the line in the first set, but that would change in the second. Four quick winners off that wing was the reply he needed to put del Potro on his heels. Playing much faster and with more intensity, Nadal gave a big fist pump as he snatched a break for 2-0 and another two games later. Del Potro was suddenly rattled as his opponent employed more variety, firing drop shot winners and opening the angles. A bevy of deep returns earned him a third break, sealing the set with an emphatic 6-0 bagel after just 27 minutes.

Nadal refused to release his grip on the match as the third set got underway. Another forehand winner earned him the quick break in the second game and the rout was on. As fatigue began to set in for del Potro, Nadal’s confidence reached atmospheric heights. Flying around the court with an injection of energy, he would reel off nine straight games before del Potro halted the skid with a hold for 1-3. With chants of ‘DelPo!’ ‘DelPo!’ raining down from all corners of Ashe, the Tandil native sought to give the boisterous Argentine contingent something to cheer for, but Nadal continued to exploit the tired legs of his opponent. He would sprint to a two-sets-to-one lead with a flurry of fist pumps after launching a forehand smash over the back wall and continued his assault in the fourth set. Nadal broke twice more and punctuated the affair with a backhand winner.

The stat of the match? Second serve points won. Nadal claimed an efficient 72 per cent of points in defending his second serve, while del Potro won just 28 per cent. The 2009 champion leaves Flushing Meadows with his head held high after a heroic run to the semi-finals. Following four wrist surgeries, he is back to playing some of the best tennis of his career. The former World No. 4 capped an inspiring run in New York, having saved two match points in stunning Dominic Thiem in the Round of 16, followed by a four-set win over Roger Federer on Wednesday.

“Rafa just played even better the last three sets of the match and I couldn’t hit my backhand as good as I did in the beginning of the match,” said Del Potro. “He played so smart from the second set until the end of the match. He was dominant. He played well. He played so smart the second set, the third and the fourth. To be honest, I’m angry to lose a chance like this, but maybe tomorrow and after tomorrow, I will see how big the tournament was for me.” 

Pablo Carreno Busta has taken the first set over Kevin Anderson, 6-4, in their US Open semi-final clash on Friday in New York.

The Spaniard has now won 16 successive sets at Flushing Meadows, having advanced to his first major semi-final without dropping a set.

The winner will face either World No. 1 Rafael Nadal or 2009 champion Juan Martin del Potro in Sunday’s championship match.

Looking to assert himself early in the contest, it was with a shout of “Come on” that Anderson won the first point of the match and went on to secure a love hold. But the South African was the first to blink on Arthur Ashe Stadium. Three unforced errors gave Carreno Busta a 15/40 advantage with Anderson serving at 3-3, and the Spaniard converted his second break point opportunity as Anderson pushed a backhand long.

Commentating for Eurosport, John McEnroe remarked, “Nerves got the better of [Anderson]. His footwork was lethargic and he was tentative to the short balls – it cost him.” Buoyed by his breakthrough, Carreno Busta went on to serve out the opener in 33 minutes, sealing it with a 124mph serve.