Juan Martin Del Potro’s Comeback: A Look at His Return to Tennis and Dream of Playing in the US Open

JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO played his last game on February 8, 2022, just over a year ago, when fell in with his friend Federico Delbonis in the first round of the ATP in Buenos Aires, during which he received an ovation at the height of his figure.

At that time he announced that he would put a pause in his career, at least until he could solve the problems in his right knee that caused him pain even in everyday life. At that time he decided never to use the word “retirement”.

This Friday, in the presence of El Gráfico, the man from Tandil delved into his present: “I do not have my stage in tennis one hundred percent closed, with a key and padlock. At some times of the day I feel like an active tennis player. I don’t watch videos like a retired tennis player can do. On my social networks it still says ‘tennis player’. And I want to keep it. The day after is very difficult and, in my case, I am preparing now. Life put this in my way and I couldn’t carry out a process as Nadal announced, for example, who announced that the next one will be his last season. You can already think about where you are going to live and other kinds of things. I was number three in the world, I fell, I broke my knee and I am still consulting with doctors to see how I can heal myself. I didn’t go through the process like any normal tennis player: I feel like an active athlete”.

Next week Del Potro will return to the courts: he will do so at the Hangzhou International Masters Tennis Tournament 2023an exhibition that will take place from June 22 to 25 in China and will feature tennis players of the stature of Marat Safin, Carlos Moya and David Ferrer.

But he has a bigger wish: he wants to say goodbye in the tournament of his life, the United States Open, the same one he won in 2009, at just 20 years old, after defeating Rafael Nadal in the semifinals and Roger Federer in the final.

“With the US Open I have an internal and personal wish that is to step on the court for the last time, play a worthy game and crown as I would like. My health and my physique send me messages that are not compatible with that desire. But every day I get up so I can satisfy my desire. If in a month my body tells me that I can’t do it, that I choose another way to close my career, I’m going to listen and respect it. In this process of my last time I don’t listen to anyone telling me not to do it. No matter how much a doctor comes and tells me it’s crazy, I get up every day, I do a kinesiologist, the diet, the medicine, the training, the massage. And I’m going to do it until I have to make an announcement.” told, in the framework of a DHL Express event.

He was number three in the world he won the US Open, won 22 ATP level titles, won two Olympic medals and lifted the Davis Cup. All his achievements contrast with the accumulation of injuries he suffered during his career. He underwent surgery eight times: once for his right wrist, three for his left hand and the last four due to the fracture of the right patella that he suffered in October 2018, in Shanghai, a problem that still plagues him to this day.

Duality is part of his life: “I live with two sensations. I have anger, I feel annoyed and I wonder why. And then it happens the other way around and I think: ‘why not me?’. I am ordinary: there are many other athletes who suffer. Alcaraz was all cramped and he is 20 years old; At the age of 20, I won the US Open final against Federer. When I had to deal with something other than tennis, I took it as a personal challenge. I never felt like I had a problem beating the best: my problem was healing my wrist. If it hurts to hit the backhand with top… ok, I play with slice, I don’t use my hand. My toughest opponent was my body. I wasn’t afraid to play against the best”.

Del Potro, 34, has already begun to look the other way away from professional tennis, but the dream of stepping on a court for the last time at the US Open does not respond to any whim. “What I always dreamed of was to win the US Open. I was ten years old and there are videos of me saying that I wanted to win the US Open. I don’t know why but it was the tournament that I liked the most. But dreaming is very difficult; In the tennis of a thousand that try, only one arrives. And the Grand Slam that I won was the US Open. The first time I went I was 16 years old, I played juniors and I lost 6-0 and 6-0 with Andy Murray”, sentenced.