Del Potro: "I visualized being number one after the Australian Open in 2019"

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Juan Martín del Potro was the last star that Argentine and South American tennis had in its possession. The giant from Tandil won the 2009 US Open in an epic final against Roger Federer, and his career seemed destined to be among the best for a long time. However, his knee and wrist hindered a spectacular player with one of the best forehands ever seen on the circuit.

The Argentine retired in 2022, although he played one last exhibition in 2024 with his great friend Novak Djokovic. And now, a year after that moment he hung up his racket for good, he spoke in an interview with ESPN about his tennis career, from his breakthrough, his unforgettable 2009 US Open, his painful injuries, and how close he was to achieving the number one ranking in 2019.

Juan Martín del Potro reviewed a tennis career to remember, but marked by injuries

"I had to have many infiltrations. Several. Many in the knee, in the wrist I had three surgeries, perhaps for having made some wrong decisions. The sport puts you under such pressure to achieve things that it cannot stop. I didn't want to stop because I had to be top 5 or top 3. I didn't want to lose ranking, so I would infiltrate. It was bread for today, hunger for tomorrow."

"The knee was another story. After my first surgery, I didn't recover well, and with the second, they tried to fix it. That way it went on, ending up being what it was, taking me off the court, forcing me to retire, and so on. Injuries are something athletes live with."

He wants so much to end the wrist pain that he even asks Artificial Intelligence for help

"I can say I had a bit of bad luck, but the truth is I became the athlete I am because of the injuries. It's part of the storyline in those more dramatic chapters. Now I ask artificial intelligence for a hand. I've talked so much with ChatGPT. I have all sorts of MRIs and X-rays. I go to the clinics, and they say, 'It's you again, we don't know what else to do for you'."

What winning a Grand Slam in tennis entails

"You win a Grand Slam, and things change a lot. Sometimes you have to go places and participate due to contracts. The one from the clothing, the one from the racket, and the ATP call you. It still excites me. Sometimes I watch that final game and say, 'let it end the same way.' That game was dramatic because it was 5-2, and if I didn't break there, I would have to serve after. Having to close the match, the final, against Federer, my first Grand Slam, with your serve, would have been pressure, not sure if manageable. So, I put all my energy there; it was that moment or nothing. And well, in the end, it happened."

"When I go to the tournament, they remind me at every corner of the hallways, the people working there are still the same and approach me. It was a very special tournament for me and for all the people there because it was Federer, and nothing similar has happened again. It moves me to remember it."

The 'thorn' of not achieving the number one ranking in 2019 and how it was the beginning of the end

"When I reached the final of the 2018 US Open, being world number 3 and exhausted, I ended up going to the Asian tour again. I went because I envisioned becoming number 1 after the 2019 Australian Open. I had a real mathematical chance that if I played well in those tournaments, I could be number 1. Then it happens that I fall, I break my knee, I have to stop, and then the nightmare of the leg begins."

On the level of tennis on the ATP circuit in 2009

"It was the natural development that had to happen. Already in 2008, I won tournaments, settled in the top 10, worked a lot with Franco Davín, had changed my game, was in full growth. And in 2009, I was already established as a top 10 player, the number 1 among the 'less good' because I was always number 5 and couldn't break that barrier," reveals Juan Martín del Potro, who was a key player in tennis in the late 2000s and 2010s. The big 'what could have been' if not for the damn injuries.
 

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Del Potro: "Visualizaba ser número uno después del Open de Australia de 2019"