-Delray Beach, Fla
Juan Martin Del Potro has announced he has withdrawn from the ATP 500 event in Acapulco next week. The 30-year old won the tournament in 2018. Del Potro made the announcement after losing in the Quarter Finals in three sets to Mackenzie McDonald at the Delray Beach Open.
Del Potro has indicated he is still not close to 100% after being out for over four months with a fractured kneecap. Each round at the tournament in Florida the amount of tape on his knee had increased and he was clearly struggling with his movement on Friday night.
” I am not feeling good enough to keep playing but I wanted to do my big effort tonight,” said Del Potro. “I think I did well, I fight to the last point of the match but it’s really difficult to win the match playing like this. I couldn’t run 100-percent. Now I have to take a break a little bit longer to be ready for Indian Wells.”
Del Potro, clearly dejected, likely wouldn’t have been able to play the Delray Semi Final on Saturday even if he had won the match vs McDonald on Friday night. Hence his decision to already pull out of Acapulco something he knew he had to do to be ready for a busy stretch of tennis. He is the defending champion at Indian Wells and reached the Semi-Finals in Miami last year.
“The doctor says if I want to be 100% it will need time,” said the 22-time winner on tour. “But I don’t want to be at home anymore watching the tournaments on TV because I had this in the past & it was really bad to me. But in this condition it’s not easy to play my best level.”
@Sportshorn
