After saying goodbye to the ATP circuit a little over a year ago due to knee pain, Juan Martin del Potro could well play the next US Open… because of Lionel Messi.
Making a bet always involves a risk, and Juan Martin del Potro is measuring the consequences… During the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the Argentinian assured that if his country won the trophy, then he would try to play the US Open. Lionel Messi and his men actually became world champions on December 18, and the 34-year-old tennis player finds himself deprived. “ Messi and the Argentina team force me to train. I still have a lot of pain. Before Qatar I didn’t have that in mind (the idea of playing again), but now I’m starting to think about it “, said the winner of the US Open 2009 to ESPN Argentina.
Juan Martin del Potro has not played since February 2022 and his defeat at the start of the Buenos Aires tournament against Federico Delbonis. The player had then said goodbye to tennis, in tears, because his knee could no longer bear the pain. Victim of a right kneecap fracture at Queen’s in 2019, the Tower of Tandil underwent four operations between June 2019 and March 2021, without much improvement, including in his everyday life. Seeing him again next September at the US Open would therefore be a small miracle.
This isn’t the first time Del Potro has hinted at a comeback
It is in any case not the first time that Juan Martin del Potro evokes a return to New York. Last October, well before the World Cup in Qatar, the former world No. 3 made no secret of his desire to return: “I always focused on my return until I made the decision to change course. . I don’t know if it was my last match against Delbonis, I feel like it but I don’t think about what to do to play anymore. When I arrived at the US Open, they told me about Serena Williams, they made me realize that if she gives me her leg (sic) next year… It generated something very strong in me and the window for a possible return remains open. He has five and a half months left to prepare.
