The night of Juan Martin del Potro’s 2009 USO Open final happened to be the morning I was starting my new job as a university tutor in Istanbul. Did I skip the match so I could go to work nice and fresh? Like hell I did! I stayed up until 6 am watching del Potro win the title versus Roger Federer at the tender age of 20. I didn’t have internet, either, so I sat up in an internet cafe cheering him on and drinking coffee. The next day at work training, in a room with 80 other tutors, I smiled away like a highly caffeinated love struck zombie.
del Potro’s win that New York Summer’s night promised so much to me. Back then, Federer and Nadal had been going at it for four years, and it was time for some new blood to win slams. del Potro, aged 20, reminded me of Safin who came along and beat Sampras at the Open in ’00. He had a lot of belief and so much talent, and that forehand.
That forehand. Swoon. No shot has given me so much pleasure. I’ve been fortunate to see it live. Going up the line, cross court, hit on the run, and the most beautiful of all, struck, in position, timed to perfection, the most brutal, beautiful shot in tennis.
del Potro’s career didn’t quite work out how we fans wished, or how he wished. His wrist issues started not long after that US Open win and who knows how things would have panned out if he had rested it and not played the 2010 Australian Open. The Argentinian had eight surgeries in total, four on his wrists. But it’s not my place to dwell on the what ifs- it’s my place to celebrate what he did achieve.
When he came back, he always delivered. He had many wins over the big 3, won plenty of titles, was a top five regular and gave us that 2018 Wimbledon last eight match versus Nadal and that 2018 run to the USO final. That 2018 Indian Wells final win over Federer is probably my greatest ATP 1000 match of all time.
More than anything, he graced us with his smile, his gentleness and his humility. Tennis players don’t have to give their best qualities to us, but he shared his tennis and his self with us in equally generous measures.
I’ll never forget when, in the trophy ceremony after that 2009 US Open win, the MC tried to take the mic off him after deciding del Potro had had his say for the night. del Potro took it back and spoke in Spanish, his eyes wet with tears and his face flushed with the brilliance of his tennis that night. That gentle tenacity and fight never left him.
del Potro; we love you. Keep in touch!
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