Few stories in tennis in recent decades are as heartbreaking as those of the Argentine Juan Martín Del Potro: he was destined for number one, for a great career, and today he only wants to play two hours without feeling pain and asks for “a lot of love” for Novak Djokovic at the exhibition 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 ordeal he went through in recent years. years.
Del Potro, who became number three in the world and won the US Open in 2009, will face Djokovic in an exhibition presented as “The last challenge.” His objectives for that Sunday surrounded by thousands of compatriots are modest: “Having peace for two or three hours and being able to enjoy a tennis court would be very nice.”
It is understandable: when you listen to Del Potro recount his last years in tennis and outside of it, the feeling is one of astonishment, and also of sadness for everything he suffered and suffers.
«When I played the last game with [Federico] Delbonis [en febrero de 2022]the next day I take a plane to Switzerland and have knee surgery for the fifth time. I did it low profile, secretly. If it worked, I would make an announcement that I was really coming back.”
«I spent two months locked up in a town near Basel, doing rehabilitation. It didn’t work. Another operation, the sixth, after two and a half months because there was a little thing left in the knee. “I went to the United States, did more rehabilitation and continued trying treatments.”
«I must have more than a hundred injections in my leg, hip and back. “They infiltrated me, analyzed me, took me out, burned my nerves, blocked my tendons…”
In addition to the disappointment and sadness at not having been able to continue his career, in which he defeated the members of the “big three” on several occasions, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, Del Potro revealed a certain understandable resentment towards the doctors.
«When I had the first operation, the doctor told me that in three months I would play again. This was in 2019, in June. I had signed up for Stockholm, Basel and Paris. Since that surgery I have never been able to climb a staircase 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 that are very ugly. “It is a nightmare without end, I keep looking for alternatives and I can’t find them.”
“Everything comes from that first surgery, every time I think about it, an emotion, anger, anguish, helplessness comes to me.”
The 2016 Davis Cup champion said he felt the need to communicate with fans.
“I feel like I have to tell you how I am, I always had a good connection with the public and maybe this can help other people.”
«I was a very active guy, today they invite me to play soccer and I am the one who carries the mate and sits outside, or if they are going to play paddle tennis I am the one who makes the videos. “And they took away my hope of doing what I like, which is playing tennis.”
«Sometimes I don’t feel like it anymore. I’m not indestructible, I’m like anyone else. Sometimes I have to put on a brave face and I don’t have the energy anymore. The leg thing consumes 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 those stones that appeared and I always beat them. Now I don’t know if I am that much. I feel like my knee has beaten me. “I had surgery eight times with doctors all over the world, spending fortunes.”
“Every time they gave me anesthesia I felt that the operation would come out well and I would not have pain. Two or three months later I would call the doctor to tell him that I was in pain.”
«They have stuck 30 or 40 centimeter needles in me trying to block the nerves. And without anesthesia, because the doctor had to check if, in fact, the nerve reacted.
“They insinuate that the problem is psychological… It’s tremendous, it’s terrible and I don’t know when it’s going to end.”
Del Potro implied that the doctors who have treated him are not doing their job well.
«I have another big fight with the doctors. ‘Put on a prosthesis and stop messing around. You’re going to have quality of life,’ they tell me.
But someone else comes and tells you ‘don’t pay attention to him, 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 15 more years of my life like this to see if I live more or less well at 60? “Now I’m in that discussion.”
The doctors ask him to make a decision, the Argentine complains.
«Do I have to make that decision? If the doctor is you!
Del Potro has been training for several days in Buenos Aires to play the best possible role against Djokovic.
«I’m on a diet, I lost weight. I want to train again, be as fit as possible, but it is a show to say goodbye, there is no turning back. And Djokovic was very generous to accept it and come.”
