At the beginning, when Juan Martín del Potro, 33, stepped out of the cabin tunnel, accompanied by the television camera, and the Court Guillermo Vilas entered, named after the famous tennis player of the 1970s, people rose. Naturally. Many were already standing, singing, holding sky blue and white striped flags and jerseys in their hands and shaking, as they would at the Albiceleste make, the much-loved national soccer team. Patricia was faded in, she was sitting quietly in the stands, her appearance alone expressing the importance of this evening. The mother had never followed her son’s official tournament match live in a stadium. In all 18 years of his professional career!
But now she had to be here, like Juan Martín’s sister Julieta, like his partner Oriana Barquet. It was the last chance. Deserved greats of Argentine tennis also paid tribute, such as Gabriela Sabatini, who achieves something that not many can: grow old with admirable dignity. Although she also followed the upcoming and one-sided game rather petrified. She knew: Don’t cry for me, Argentina, Evita once belted it out powerfully in the musical. But this was the reality. Juan Martín del Potro is out of strength.
A gesture that is now part of tennis history: Juan Martín del Potro leaves the headband he always wore on the court.
(Photo: Juan Mabromata/AFP)
That’s exactly what he said later. He would be happy if he could “sleep again today after two and a half years without pain in his leg”. “I want to live in peace,” said del Potro, sobbing on the clay court after losing 6-1, 6-3 to compatriot Federico Delbonis in the first round of this rather small ATP tournament. At 3:5 a crying fit had overwhelmed him. He had to bury his head in a towel for several seconds to calm himself. When the game was over, he walked to the net, draped his headband over the edge, kissed it – and left it hanging there.
In Buenos Aires, del Potro played his first match since 2019 – it was also his last
It has probably never been more accurate to claim that someone had really left their soul on the pitch. And of course he kept crying. This is another reason why he touched his fans again and again and still enjoys the greatest respect from his colleagues to this day: he never shied away from holding back his feelings. He liked hugging others. He never said a bad word (only maybe once, in a match against Andy Murray). His victory pose – legs apart, arms raised – is legendary. So are his tears, shed in many stages. Which was not only due to his defeats. That’s the tragedy.
His greatest triumph: Juan Martín del Potro won the US Open in 2009 – by beating the Swiss Roger Federer in the final in five sets.
(Photo: Jared Wickerham/AFP)
This last chapter also bears witness to this. It had been 965 days since Juan Martín del Potro, known as the Gentle Giant, last played a game in a tournament. In June 2019 he defeated Canadian Denis Shapovalov in the London borough of Queen’s. He couldn’t compete for the next duel. This time, for the second time, he had fractured his right kneecap. For the eighth time he had to endure an operation.
His left wrist was cut open three times alone, and his right once. When he wasn’t on the court scoring the greatest possible wins with his forehand, hailed by his supporters as “Thor’s Hammer” and by John McEnroe as “perhaps tennis’s most powerful forehand”, he was in the hospital or in rehab. And far too often alone with doubts. Del Potro had depression, he admitted in 2016.
His story is so special because del Potro touched others as a person. But also because so many, not just him, ask themselves: what would have happened if? If his body had been more stable? Would there be a club of the big four instead of the big three? With members Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic – and del Potro? Everyone guesses the answer: Yes. Tennis history would have been different. A great career would have been many times greater.
Del Potro could inflict wounds on opponents with his mighty play
To put del Potro’s wealth in relation to the new generation of players who have been aspiring for years: there it was always considered a success if they won sets against the big three. When the Russian Daniil Medvedev defeated Djokovic in the final of the US Open, it was a sensation. When his body allowed it, Del Potro didn’t just keep up. He triumphed in rows against the heavyweights. He was on par. He was never afraid. Never excuses.
He had the punches for those big matches. In 2009, during his Grand Slam triumph in New York, he defeated Nadal 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 in the semifinals. The Spaniard has never been beaten worse. Federer had basically already won the final, but the Swiss, who had previously won in New York in an unprecedented five years, still lost it. In the fifth set del Potro won 6:2, never giving up. Federer once said: If there were a game he wanted to play again, it would be this final. Del Potro was someone who didn’t just suffer himself. He could leave wounds on opponents with his mighty game. When he defeated Djokovic in the first round of the 2016 Olympics, the loser ran from the arena in tears.
Back then, in Brazil, del Potro won silver, only Murray defeated him. Four years earlier in London, the Argentine had won bronze against Djokovic. Del Potro’s record is also impressive in other respects: third in the world rankings, 22 tournament wins, including 2018 in Indian Wells, where he defeated Federer in the final. In 2016 he led Argentina to Davis Cup success in the final against Croatia. “I have fulfilled all my dreams in tennis,” said del Potro now in Buenos Aires, but he also knew that this evening was not about old triumphs. It was about bigger things. “People’s affection is the most important trophy,” he added immediately. “Now I have peace of mind because my last game was probably on the pitch and not in a press conference.”