Those who saw him achieve glory at the age of 20 will be nostalgic. Those who believed at that moment that they would see the best Argentine tennis player in history will regret it. And those who have the privilege of saying goodbye to him at Parque Roca will applaud him. Because this afternoon, from 5:30 p.m. and with an exhibition in front of none other than Novak Djokovicwill say goodbye to tennis definitively Juan Martin del Potro. Of course, he hasn’t competed on the circuit for almost three years, but this tribute/show will be the final point to a career that was glorious, but no one can imagine how much more it could have been. The place of Del Potro in the history of Argentine tennis and the curious (and frustrating) moments of his injuries, which took away the possibility of being the best of all.
The farewell announcement
The unusual timing of his injuries
When at the age of 20, in September 2009, that little giant from Tandil won the US Open title, many believed that a decade was coming with many more smiles than tears. Del Potro He was already breaking precocity records and was without a doubt the great future of Argentine tennis, called to dethrone Guillermo Vilas. But his greatest enemy stalked him from the first moment. In January 2010, at only 21 years old, the Argentine reached 4th place in the ranking, his best position until then. And that was when he injured his right wrist. He underwent surgery and was inactive for eight months: he missed practically the entire season and dropped to 484th place.
In 2011 he had to find his tennis and his physique and little by little he gained confidence, rhythm and results and was recognized as Comeback Player of the Year by the ATP. This is how 2012 continued, now more established and with recognized achievements such as the bronze medal at the London Olympic Games or reaching the quarterfinals in three of the four Grand Slams of the season. That year, in a Davis Cup series against the Czech Republic, Del Potro He injured the cartilage in his left wrist. But he learned to live with the pain and in 2013 he found it even better: he won four ATP 500 titles, beat Roger Federer in a new final and after four years he once again reached the decisive match in a Masters 1000 (in Indian Wells and Shanghai ) already semi-finals of a Grand Slam. The results put him 5th in the world, again near the top, after three rising seasons. But again…
In this case, it was the left wrist. The one that had been battered for a long time. Del Potro He decided to have surgery at the beginning of 2014, after being forced to abandon a match against Somdev Devvarman at the ATP 500 in Dubai, and spent the entire season without playing. He wanted to return a year later and participated in a handful of tournaments, but his wrist continued to cause headaches. And he underwent new surgery, shortly before the start of the Australian Open. He returned almost three months later, but still sore. In June 2015, back to the operating room. Third operation in a year and a half. In the same hand. Fourth on one of her two wrists. Another almost complete season, 2015, without playing.
In February 2016, by the time he reappeared, he was 1046th in the world. Expectations were low, the paintings were difficult and the future was uncertain. But the milestones began: silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games after beating Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, the first Davis Cup in Argentine history, against Croatia and in Zagreb, and his first title (in Stockholm) after two and a half years. Del Potro had resurfaced. In 2017 he settled down and won important victories and in 2018 he took a leap in quality again. Once and for all, physically fit, he fought against the best. His tennis was as good as what he had shown in 2009, almost a decade ago. It seemed like a cycle… His first Masters 1000 title arrived in Indian Wells and a new Grand Slam final at the US Open (he would lose to Djokovic), the first since that one in 2009 against Federer. And it climbed to position No. 3. A place he had never been to in his life. The top seemed so close. And then, the blow of knockout.
Del Potro He fractured the kneecap in his right knee at the end of 2018. He was inactive for four months, he wanted to return without undergoing surgery, it was unsuccessful and he ended up having surgery in June 2019. Since then, another two and a half years without playing until that symbolic farewell to Federico Delbonis at the ATP in Buenos Aires, another operation in Miami, one more in Chicago and from then on, the martyrdom that he exposed in recent days. The difficult thing to digest is that the worst injuries of his career were always when the Argentine had recovered his best version. Every time he had penetrated, again and after a lot of effort, the Top 5. His timeline marks a frustrating pattern: three seasons on the rise and then an injury that sidelines him for at least one season. It happened three times.
Closer to Vilas than it seems
Juan Martin del Potro He is one of two Argentine men who have won at least one Grand Slam title; Guillermo Vilas He has four. Great Willy’s career is superlative and the one from Mar del Plata is part of the most privileged lists in the history of tennis and is the best Argentine in history to have ever held a racket, but when what he achieved is put into perspective Del Potro Taking into account their inactivity, the gap is considerably reduced. For example: Vilas has 12 Grand Slam semifinals in 57 editions played (21%); Del Potro6 in 37 (16%). Vilaswith 951, is the 6th tennis player with the most victories in history; Delpo, with 439, ranks 74th. But when the winning percentage is measured, Vilas falls to 11th place (76.2%) and Tandil climbs to 21st (71.2%).
From his first Grand Slam match to his last as a professional, Del Potro He was absent from 26 Grand Slam editions. Almost half of his career (he played 37). In the years that he was active, it was enough for him to achieve a Grand Slam, a Masters 1000, 22 titles, two Olympic medals (in addition to him, only Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and Fernando González are multiple medal winners in men’s singles), a Davis Cup (the only one in Argentina so far) and reach 3rd place in the ranking. A career that had everything and established him as one of the best in an era marked by the overwhelming dominance of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. A right that earned him praise from the best and a resilience that many admire.
Del Potro He finally leaves tennis this afternoon and does so with figures that recognize him as the second best Argentine in history behind Guillermo Vilas, surpassing icons like David Nalbandian and José Luis Clerc, but they are not close to reflecting the true reality: that if it had not been for injuries, he could have scratched the heels of Big Willy. He leaves with 7 victories over Federer, 6 over Nadal and 4 over Djokovic. For some, like the “eternal number 5”, behind them three and Andy Murray, although when the body accompanied him he played them as equals. And he leaves, sadly and despite countless successes, as another witness to the “what would have been if…?”
