Juan Martin Del Potro is one of the most loved tennis players in the world. He has accomplished so much in his career however, still the most common thought that comes up in people's heads when thinking about his career is "what if". What if he wasn't injured as often? What if he was healthy throughout all his career? How many tournaments and grand slams would he have won then? In this blog I will discuss Del Potro's career, talk about his injuries and give my thoughts about him as a player.
Del Potro commonly known as Delpo is a 33 year old Argentinian tennis player who just played potentially his last professional match at the Argentina Open 2022. It was his first match since 2019 and everyone at the start were so happy when he announced that he will be playing again. However, a couple days later he announced that it was more of a "good bye" than a comeback https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2horT1PNPo&t=42s.
Del Potro showed the world how good he was when he won his first and only grand slam at the 2009 US Open. He did it in remarkable fashion by beating Nadal comfortably in straight sets in the semi-finals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_yAIi42LTY and then he backed it up by beating Federer in the final https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xxb4MIsBBsg&t=4s. The fact that he was only 19 and managed to beat them at their prime was scary. He finished that year as world number 5 but like throughout his whole career all his good runs had to come to an end due to injury.
Del Potro's Injuries
Del Potro has had to overcome a crazy amount of injuries. In most cases players struggle with the same type of injuries throughout their careers. For example some might have continuous problems with their knees or back but the same cannot be said about Del Potro. He has had so many different serious injuries which include pulling a muscle in his lower back in 2007, thigh injury in 2008, right wrist injury in 2009 and 2010, abdominal strain in 2009, shoulder and hip injury in 2011, left wrist injury in 2012, left knee and left wrist injury in 2013 and 2018 and to top it off he got a right knee injury in 2018 as well which practically ended his career.
Del Potro's comebacks from injury
As you saw above he has been very unlucky throughout his career and suffered a lot. However people love him for a reason and that reason is his never die attitude. He never gave up and always came back stronger. The left wrist injury he got in 2013 kept him out until 2016. His first match back was in the 2016 Rio Olympics and he was drawn against Djokovic in the very first round who at the time was almost unbeatable. He just won 4 grand slams in a row and he was determined to win his first gold medal for his country.
However, Del Potro shocked the world and managed to beat him in an incredible match and then made it all the way to the final by beating Nadal along the way. At the end he won the silver medal which was unbelievable considering he didn't play in almost 3 years. He also carried Argentina to their first ever Davis Cup trophy. As you can see he loved playing for his country. his good form continued and he managed to achieve his best ever ranking which was world number 3. Sadly his luck expired at the end of 2018 when he picked up a left knee injury. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQgaDLbMyvc
He tried to play on in 2019 but only managed to play very few tournaments and to make matters worse he slipped when playing at Queen's which damaged his kneecap. After nearly 3 years and 4 knee surgeries he came back this year and potentially played his last ever professional match.
My thoughts on his career
The fact that he still managed to win 22 career titles, 1 silver and bronze medal at the Olympics and constantly managed to get himself back into the top 10 in the world after long periods of injuries proves to me that he is one of a kind. I fully believe if he was healthy throughout his career he would've been up their with the big 3 (Nadal, Federer and Djokovic) and would have a lot more slam titles. He was constantly a huge threat to them and also has one of the best win % on the tour at 71.6%. In my opinion he was a way better player than all these "next gen" players as he was able compete and beat the big 3 during their primes. Whereas this generation of players are struggling to beat them even though they are in their mid 30s or in Federer's case 40 and they are obviously nowhere near their primes anymore. Del Potro has performed many miracles throughout his career and lets hope he is not done yet as the sport is not the same without him. The world still needs to witness his forehand sledgehammers from time to time.
Comentarios