Securing his latest high-profile scalp at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Juan Martin del Potro is refusing to let his summer of success sideline him from his top priority – his health.
After enduring two years of agony and despair with a troublesome wrist injury that almost forced him to retire from the sport, the beloved Argentine has recorded six top 10 victories this season. Amongst them were Dominic Thiem (twice), Stan Wawrinka, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and most recently Andy Murray. Del Potro’s run on the tour has reminded the world of how he managed to win the US Open at the age of 20.
Since August, the 27-year-old has claimed a silver medal at the Rio Olympics and reached the quarter-finals at the US Open, losing both of those matches to the eventual champions. The recent run has met and exceeded all of Del Potro’s hopes in his comeback.
“I didn’t expect to be playing at this level.” He admitted. “At this time of the year I have already beaten the top four players within the last few months, that’s amazing for me.”
With such a calibre of victories under his belt, some might expect Del Potro to focus on winning titles and rising further up the world rankings. This is obviously an important target for him, but there is something more important for the Argentine and his team.
“My biggest goal for this year is to finish healthy.” He stated.
Seven months have passed since the Argentine returned to the ATP Tour at the Delray Beach Open in Florida. It was the start of what Del Potro labelled as his ‘new career‘ as he once again started from scratch. This time round, he hopes to be a regular feature on the ATP Tour for a longer period as he wrestles his fears of suffering another devastating injury.
“If something happened to me in this situation (where I am now), I would be really really sad because I fought a lot to comeback.” He said.
” I have to be smart because this is the beginning of my new career. I want to play for more years and not just one more match.”
Life on the tour is certainly good for a man that has gone through so much. Nevertheless, as Del Potro continued his comeback to the tour, his body is still trying to cope with the physical demands of the sport.
“I’m feeling something bothering my body, but it’s normal.” He said shortly after he lost in the doubles in the Davis Cup.
“Of course I didn’t expect to play eight hours in two days.”
To the relief of the army of his fans, the pain Del Potro is referring to isn’t his wrist. Ironically, he joked that all of his body was aching after playing two marathon matches within 48 hours. An understandable consequence for a man that has endured so much physical turmoil in his career.
