It fucks the hairs as they say. The emotion was at its height on the clay courts of Buenos Aires overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday. Juan Martin Del Potro may indeed have said goodbye to tennis after his loss to his compatriot
Federico Delbonis (6-1, 6-3) in the first round. The Argentinian, who suffers martyrdom due to repeated injuries, could quickly retire.
For the moment, it is not yet fully recorded: “Today is a break. I will always leave the door open. But I’m putting tennis on the back burner until my leg gets better. If it works, I’ll put other cards on the table. For the moment, I have no certainty about Rio”, he explained in a post-match press conference, referring to the Brazilian tournament which begins on Monday and where his participation, for commercial reasons , is not excluded.
He collapses on the court one game from the end
That night, he was cheered by the 5,000 spectators, who sang “Delpo, don’t leave!” and who posted written messages of sympathy for him. “Today I gave everything I had, down to the last point. I’m happy because my last game, probably, was on a court and not giving a press conference,” he told the audience. “We may never see each other again”, also launched “Delpo”, with tears in his eyes. In particular, he completely cracked one game at the end of the match.
🥺 This picture! Del Potro’s tears before serving for the last time in his career in front of his home crowd 🙌 pic.twitter.com/48lvtfT39c https://t.co/5YEhTk23ZW
— Eurosport France (@Eurosport_FR) February 9, 2022
“To be honest, it’s a moment that I never wanted to see happen. My health leads me to have to make a decision. I don’t have as much strength as a lot of people think. I think I have realized all my tennis dreams. Today, I wish I could sleep without pain,” explained the 753rd in the world. Del Potro, who had not played on the circuit for almost three years because of a knee injury, had nevertheless announced on Saturday that it was a question of a “farewell more than a return “, and that there was” no better tournament than that of Buenos Aires to “retire.
A legend in his country
The 1.98m Argentinian, nicknamed the Tower of Tandil, had his finest hour at the 2009 US Open by defeating Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals and then Roger Federer in the final, in five sets, thus becoming the first Argentinian since Guillermo Vilas, in 1977, to win a Grand Slam tournament. The only one of his career. ‘Delpo’ also helped give Argentina their first Davis Cup in 2016.
The best Argentine player of the last twenty years has also won two hard-fought Olympic medals. Bronze at London 2012, beating Novak Djokovic, then silver at Rio 2016, after beating Djokovic and Nadal but yielding in the final against Andy Murray.