Courtesy of Marcelo Gomez
9 July 2019. On center court at the Queen’s Club, Juan Martin del Potro comfortably beats Canadian Denis Shapovalov in straight sets (7-5, 6-4). But something is wrong. In the eighth game of the second set, Delpo slips while reaching for a ball near the net and his right knee hurts. Juan Martín wins, but his knee is swollen and he will not be able to play his quarterfinal match against Feliciano López. Nor any other official party. Up to now.
935 days. Exactly 2 years, 6 months, and 17 days. It is the endless time that the Tower of Tandil has had to wait for jump back onto a tennis court for an official matchl. Along the way, endless problems have delayed the return of one of the greatest legends of Argentine tennis and also caused his premature retirement.
“I hope everything goes well,” Marcelo ‘El Negro’ Gmez tells us. Few people want a good del Potro reunion so much. gmez was the trainer of Delpo since its inception at the Independent Club, where he began to forge not only a future great tennis player. Also a hard-working and competitive personality: “I always tried to instill in him effort, sacrifice, humility and perseverance.”
Marcelo knows like few the winner of the US Open in 2009. By the way, since his triumph in the Arthur Ashe, no Latin American player has managed to prevail in one of the four ‘greats’. A success that enhances the figure of the Argentine. The last triumph before the victory of Delpo goes back to 2004 with another Argentine, with Gastn Gaudio winning at Roland Garros in that intense match against Guillermo Coria.
“As a boy we had the idea, together with his father, of making him play in higher categories. He always played with boys two or three years older than him“, relates Gómez. But that young 12-year-old tennis player did not shrink. Rather, that idea would end up boosting his competitive spirit: “His training was always in places where he could lose. He always tried his best but never won. It was very important to the formation of his character.”
Until the age of 14, Juan Martín would not lift his first trophy. It will be in the Orange Bowl de 2002, eliminating another US Open champion like Marin Cili in the semifinals. Since then, a meteoric rise that only injuries could stop him.
“It’s a work animal. He is always looking to perfect himself, to improve himself. He called me on Sundays to train tennis”, Gómez defines one of the most characteristic features of the Torre de Tandil: its competitiveness. And his passion for this sport: “He really likes tennis”.
When we ask El Negro about the Argentine’s last months, he replies: “It’s difcil para l. He knows that it is one of the few opportunities he has to return to the circuit”. However, Del Potro prepared his set-up for this moment for long weeks. Marcelo, who will train with him at the Uncas Club in Tandil before the tournament, knows it first hand: “On Monday it started with a level of 4-5 points, on Tuesday it was already at 6, on Wednesday at 7, on Thursday at 8 and on Friday it was already at another level.“.
When we speak with Marcelo, the winner of the US Open an he had not announced his retirement. His testimony serves to understand Del Potro’s motivation for returning to the elite, before the pain could overtake him: “he wants to be on top and play with Nadal, Federer, Tsisipas…”
“In one of the returns I had a bad left hand but physically I was fine. We were training the right hand and I told him: “Juan, you’re ready to come back,” says Gómez. He told me: “If I can’t win the Top Ten I won’t come back“Only Casper Rudd, in case he advances in rounds, could be his last great duel. But Marcelo warns that at the tennis level “he is impeccable”. He will have the opportunity to reflect it on the center court of the Argentina Open against another Argentine, Federico Delbonis, tour partner for so many years and also Davis Cup champion in 2016.
The last return of Juan Martín will also have a special component. Upstairs he will have another fan, his father. Daniel Horacio died on January 12, 2021 due to coronavirus: “his dream was that his father would see him return to a tennis court. Daniel will see it from heaven, with his sister”. And the rest will also see the return and the end of that boy from Tandil who caught the world’s attention. And it will be 935 days later.
