Few tennis stories in recent decades are as heartbreaking as the Argentinian’s Juan Martin Del Potro: He was destined for number one, for a good career, and today he just wants to play for two hours without feeling pain and wants “a lot of love” to Djokovic at the show this Sunday in Buenos Aires.

“I want us, together with the people, to give him a lot of love, to take with him the best memories of Argentina and his Argentine fans,” del Potro said in an emotional 11-minute video in which he explained the problem he had in recent years.

Del Potro, the world number three and 2009 US Open winner, will face Djokovic in a showdown billed as “The Last Challenge”. His goals for this Sunday are surrounded by thousands of moderate companions: “You would have peace for two or three hours and be able to enjoy the tennis court very well.”

It’s understandable: when you listen to Del Potro recount his last years in and out of tennis, the feeling is one of wonder, and also of sadness for all that he suffered and he suffered.

“When I played the last game with [Federico] Delbonis [en febrero de 2022]the next day I will take a plane to Switzerland and I will have knee surgery for the fifth time. I did it low profile, secretly. If it worked, I would say that I was really coming back. “

“I spent two months locked up in a town near Basel, doing rehabilitation. It didn’t work. Another surgery, the sixth, after two and a half months because there was little left in the knee. “I went to the United States, did more rehabilitation and continued to try treatments. “

Hug Djokovic and Del Potro after the 2018 US Open final, won by the Serbian // actionpress.de

“I must have had over a hundred injections in my leg, hip and back. “They took me in, they analyzed me, they took me out, they burned my nerves, they stopped my tendons…”

In addition to the disappointment and sadness of not being able to continue his career, in which he defeated the members of the “big three” several times, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, Del Potro showed understandable resentment towards the doctors.

“When I had my first operation, the doctor told me that I would be playing again in three months. This was in 2019, in June. I had booked for Stockholm, Basel and Paris. Since that surgery I have never been able to climb a flight of stairs without pain again.

«On a trip to Tandil [su ciudad, en el centro de Argentina] of four hours I have to stop halfway to stretch my legs. If I’m sleeping I get punctures which are very ugly. “It’s a never-ending nightmare, I keep looking for alternatives and I can’t find them.”

“Everything comes from that first surgery, every time I think about it, I get emotional, anger, sadness, helplessness.”

The 2016 Davis Cup champion said he felt the need to engage with fans.

“I feel like I have to tell you how I am, I’ve always had a good connection with the public and maybe this will help others.”

“I was a very active boy, today they invite me to play football and I am the one who carries the partner and sits outside, or if they ‘ going to play paddle tennis and I’m the one who makes the videos. “And they took away my hope of doing what I love, which is to play tennis. “

“Sometimes I don’t feel that way anymore. I’m not invincible, I’m like anyone else. Sometimes I have to put on a brave face and I just don’t have the energy anymore. And what bothers me, I suffer every day. I get up and take between six and eight pills: gastric protector, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anxiety pills…”

« The emotional pain [que tengo]… I felt very powerful and very strong in overcoming these stones that appeared and I always hit them. Now I don’t know if I’m that big. I feel like my knee has been hit. “I had surgery eight times with doctors all over the world, costing a fortune.”

“Every time they gave me anesthesia I felt that the operation would go well and that I would not be in pain. Two or three months later I would call the doctor to tell him that I was in pain .”

“They have put 30 or 40 centimeter needles in me trying to block the nerves. And without anesthesia, because the doctor had to find out if, in fact, the nerve was responding.

“They insist it’s a psychological problem… It’s terrible, it’s terrible and I don’t know when it’s going to end.”

Del Potro said that the doctors who treated him were not doing their job well.

“I have another big fight with the doctors. ‘Put on a prosthesis and stop working around. You’re going to have a quality of life,’ they tell me.

But someone else comes along and tells you ‘don’t pay attention to it, you’re too young for a prosthesis, wait until you’re 50’.

“Since I was 31, I haven’t run, I haven’t climbed a ladder, I can’t kick a ball anymore, I haven’t played tennis anymore. Am I going to spend another 15 years of my life like this to see if I live better or less at 60? “Now I’m in that debate.”

The doctors ask him to make a decision, the Argentine complains.

“Do I have to make that decision? If you are the doctor!

Del Potro has been training for several days in Buenos Aires to play his best role against Djokovic.

“I’m on a diet, I lost weight. I want to train again, be as fit as possible, but it’s a farewell show, there’s no turning back. And Djokovic was very generous to accept and come.”