What would have been of Juan Martín Del Potro's career without so many physical problems?
It is so true that injuries are commonplace for the vast majority of professional tennis players, especially understanding the demands of staying at a high level, as the Tandil native suffered more than anyone else with his body.
He had back problems (2007 and 2008), right thigh (2008), abdomen (2009), right wrist (2009 and 2010), hip (2011), right shoulder (2011), left knee (2012), left wrist (2012 , 2013, 2014 and 2018), groin (2017) and right knee (2018 and 2019).
And Argentine tennis missed out on knowing the true potential of one of the best exponents in its entire history.
Even so, it was enough for him to write some of the most glorious pages of national sport.
He was the fourth albiceleste singles player to win a Grand Slam after
Guillermo Vilas,
Gabriela Sabatini
and
Gastón Gaudio,
he won two Olympic medals (bronze in London 2012 and silver in Rio 2016) and he carried the team on his shoulder so that Argentina could lift its first Davis Cup, also in 2016, with outstanding victories against Andy Murray in the semifinals and Marin Cilic in the final.
And in 2018, in
Indian Wells
against
Roger Federer,
he had another of those giant wins.
Nobody imagined that this would be the last of his 22 titles, but it was.
Regarding the American Masters 1000, which this Sunday will meet the champion of its 2024 edition, the memory of the last great joy of Delpo,
one of the two South American champions in the Californian desert
(the other was the Chilean Marcelo Ríos in 1998).
Del Potro was the second Argentine to play in the final in Indian Wells and avenged Vilas, who in 1977 lost to Brian Gottfried.
Photo: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images/AFP
He had successfully overcome a left wrist operation that kept him off the field practically all of 2015, he was recovered and was able to find continuity from mid-2016 to the end of 2018. It was what he needed to once again demonstrate his enormous hierarchy.
He arrived at the Rio Olympic Games in 141st place in the ranking and was unlucky to be defeated in the first round by
Novak Djokovic,
the world number one.
Or perhaps the bad fortune was that of the Serbian, who in two long
tiebreaks
saw his Olympic dream disappear once again.
Thus, while fighting against the instability that his body transmitted to him, the Argentine was reunited with the best version of himself.
He later knocked down
Rafa Nadal
in the semis and ended up being runner-up.
He was back.
Del Potro (silver), Murray (gold) and Nishikori (bronze), the Rio 2016 Olympic podium. Photo: AFP
The upward curve continued and in 2018 the best Del Potro definitively returned,
the one who can beat anyone, even the best
Roger Federer.
The Swiss had started the year undefeated with the titles of the Australian Open and the ATP 500 in Rotterdam, which allowed him to become the oldest number one in history at 36 years and six months and seemed invincible.
Until he met Del Potro in Indian Wells.
It was one of the most attractive finals in recent times in the Masters 1000: due to the hierarchy of those who faced each other, the high intensity they exhibited in the two hours and 42 minutes that the match lasted and the sudden script changes that made it definition was even more exciting.
It was full of drama.
The development of a movie finale
Del Potro knew that he had to be firm with his serve to beat the latest great version of a legend like Federer and he more than achieved it during the first set: he put into play 76.5% of his first serves and 80% of his the second, he did not have a single
break point
against him and broke in the fifth
game
to go ahead 6-4 on the scoreboard.
The second set was a real battle.
The Swiss raised his level and the match became very even.
No one gave in until an unforced error by the Argentine left him very compromised: 4-5 and 15-40, double
set point
against.
With a cool head, another of the factors that explain his success in tennis, he stayed alive.
He saved the first with a cross
drive
that ended up in the box and then was helped by an error by his rival with that same blow.
Everything was equal again: 5-5.
The player from Basel had three new set points by taking a 6-3 lead in the
tiebreak
and was going to achieve it with a winning serve at 6-5.
He clenched his fist and walked to his chair, relieved, but del Potro asked for the hawk's eye.
The ball was gone by millimeters.
Unsettled, Federer committed a double fault and at the change of ends, with the
score
6-6, he exploded in anger against the
umpire,
Fergus Murphy.
I reproached him that this
challenge
had been late.
At 8-7 came the first
match point
for Torre de Tandil, who was going to regret it because she was in a good position to win with a new inverted forehand
winner
, her best shot, but it stayed in the net.
Finally, in his seventh
set point
, the world number one took it 10-8.
He vented his anger with some insults in the air.
And now the anger belonged to the Argentine, who went on top of the chair umpire because the public was shouting between his serves.
There was more show.
Del Potro talks with Fergus Murphy, the umpire of the final against Federer.
Photo: EFE/EPA/Mike Nelson.
The drama was to continue in the third set.
In a situation very similar to that of the second set,
Federer broke in the ninth game and had three
match points.
Del Potro, again against the ropes, brought out his steel mind to extend the match.
And finally, in a new
tiebreak
, which he played sensationally, he won 7-2 to seal one of the most outstanding victories of his career: 6-4, 6-7 and 7-6.
Moments after his coronation he approached the camera and remembered César, his dog, who had died a month before and whom he defined as his "faithful companion."
Del Potro and the memory for his dog César.
Photo: ESPN Capture.
"The truth is that I was very angry in the second set, but it was with the
umpire
and not with the people, to whom I am very grateful for all the love and affection they gave me during this week," said the champion after the meeting.
"I'm still shaking because I beat a great like Federer, who is a great player and a friend,"
he remarked in response to the praise previously expressed by His Majesty, who maintained that "the match was even, but Del Potro deserved the triumph".
Del Potro's sad goodbye
That 2018 was going to continue in a very good way for Juan Martín Del Potro.
He reached the semifinals of Roland Garros, the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and, nine years after his memorable US Open title against Federer, he returned to play in the final of the last Grand Slam of the season, losing against Novak Djokovic.
He finished the season as number five in the world, for the first time in the Top Ten since 2014, but
a new injury was going to hit him hard.
Very hard.
It was against Borna Coric in the Shanghai Masters 1000, at the end of the season and when he was preparing to compete in the Masters Tournament after five years.
He slipped while going for a
drop shot
from the Croatian,
hit his right knee on the ground and fractured his kneecap.
From then on he was never the same.
He has played just 13 matches since then (eight wins and five losses) and the most recent of them was against Federico Delbonis at the Argentina Open 2022. He did not officially retire, but he hinted at it in the preview of that match at the Buenos Aires Lawn. Tennis.
"I must be honest with what I feel and make sure the message is understood well. It is more of a farewell than a miraculous return,"
he announced through tears in an emotional press conference.
Video
At a press conference, visibly moved, the Argentine tennis player announced his retirement due to repeated complications in his knee.
And he gave details of his condition:
"My knee makes me live a nightmare. When I went to Tandil, before I drove straight for three and a half hours and now I have to stop to stretch my leg."
The memories remain, glorious memories.