US Open Takeaways: #4, Del Potro turns into Thor

This 17-point roundup is about the players who put it all on and inside the lines at the rowdiest major event of the season. The hits started early, and they certainly kept coming.

Check out No. 5 here.

4

Juan Martin del Potro, everybody. Observers made light early of his patented thunder-stroke, that fearsome forehand, that time and again proved to be the most hotly discussed shot over the course of the event.

In probably the most dramatic match of the tournament, the hammer-wielding Argentine turned even some skeptical journalists into overt believers with his fourth-round display against Dominic Thiem. After falling back 6-1, 6-2 and looking strikingly unwell, Delpo delivered a 6-1 breadstick to the young Austrian that brought on Thiem's quietly boiling, two-hour freak-out session. To the surprise of none, Steve Tignor put it perfectly:

Even some actors took note of what unfurled on Grandstand court:

“I was trying to retire the match in the second set,” Del Potro said later. “Then I saw the crowd waiting for more tennis.”

What's novel about Roger Federer's tweet above is that, as it so happened, del THORtro's big stick would fell him over four sets in the next round, in the quarterfinals. And so tennis fans continue with their hunger for a Federer vs. Rafael Nadal showdown in New York.

His victory against Federer, his second in a pair of high-profile wins over the GOAT, compelled Del Potro to plead with the actor who portrays a Norse god/Marvel superhero for two more outings with his otherworldly, fictional weapon.

Chris Hemsworth wanted it back, though:

Even so, after taking out Federer, Del Potro met his match – and likely ran out of fuel – against Nadal in a would-be semifinal epic that itself became a wee bit of a dud.

He knew what the sum of all these experiences meant, though: He had been asked by on-court interviewers twice, after the wins over Thiem and Federer, to speak in Spanish – welcome reparations for being turned back in the 2009 US Open championship ceremony after he had asked to address attendees in Spanish.

Del Potro erased both small blemishes and outsized issues of the past. He made all-new memories.

Now encroaching on the ATP Top-20 rankings, Delpo has proven that multiple injuries and surgeries cannot stop one who craves competition of the highest order and will do whatever is needed to return to that. Del Potro loves Queens, and Queens loves him.

Follow Jon on Twitter @jonscott9.