As the world comes to grips with a grand slam without Roger Federer in it, Juan Martin del Potro has made a heart throbbing admission about his own sorry departure from the sport.
Del Potro, 34, says he feels like he has been left “with nothing” with injury bringing the curtains down on his phenomenal career.
After climbing to a career high world No.3 in mid 2018, almost a decade after he moved to No.4 in the rankings to begin 2010 after claiming the US Open, del Potro draped his headband over the net as he bowed out in Buenos Aires earlier this year to compatriot Federico Delbonis in February.
It came after four knee surgeries, where he fractured his kneecap for the second time in eight months.
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Now del Potro has revealed the extent of his injuries, saying he cannot run and walk up hills pain free.
“I recently went to Switzerland to see another doctor,” del Potro recently told reporters in Argentina. “I started another treatment, it was recommended by many tennis players and so far I have not even had a positive result.
“Imagine what it’s like after every treatment attempt or surgery, the frustration I can feel when things don’t work out. As usual I delude myself, I hope, I have faith in every new treatment I try and, when this fails, the blow is hard.
“And for three and a half years, despite several surgeries and treatments, it always happened. Today I can only walk, I do not run on the treadmill, I cannot climb the stairs without pain. I can’t drive for a long time without stopping to stretch my legs.
“This is my reality, which is hard, it is sad, but I always try to improve my situation and my new challenge is also to live in the best possible way, even psychologically, despite my problem.”
Del Potro said that he struggled to contemplate life without tennis, saying his sudden departure from the sport had been hard to process.
“I can’t psychologically accept a life without tennis,” he said.
“I did not have a gradual transition to the after, I did not prepare, I have no idea what the other athletes did to live this process peacefully.
“I was number three in the world, then suddenly I broke my knees and here I am, with nothing.
“And all this time I was trying to recover, as I have with any other injury, until in Buenos Aires I said: ‘That’s enough’. And from Buenos Aires I found myself, and I am still there, in that process of reflection, I wonder what things I might like, I don’t know.
“When I talk to other athletes who are no longer active, they say to me, ‘Well, it took me the last two years of my career, the last year, I prepared myself this way or that way. I’m doing it now.”
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The Argentine Davis Cup winner, who also won medals at the 2012 (bronze) and 2016 (silver) Olympic Games, became a household name in 2009 as he went on a giant killing run to the US Open final.
He beat Marin Cilic in the quarter-finals, before smashing Rafael Nadal in straight sets (6-2, 6-2, 6-2) to qualify for his first – and only – final.
Over five incredible sets, del Potro became one of only three players (you know the other two) to beat Federer in a grand slam final as he took out the US Open.
His breakthrough win capped a great season, where he made the quarter-final at the Australian Open before making the semi-finals at both the French Open and Wimbledon.
The Argentinian would reach one more final in 2018, where Novak Djokovic beat him in straight sets.
The Times’ correspondent James Gheerbrant said he would miss del Potro “more than” Federer.
“For this unfailing generosity of spirit, in the face of severe adversity, I found Del Potro to be just as compelling and admirable — perhaps even a little more so — than his legendary peers,” Gheerbrant wrote in The Times.
“Perhaps no athlete of the last 15 years has better epitomised the brutal bargain of professional sport in the 21st century: going to war on your body, so your body can go to war on your behalf.
“Physical disrepair comes for most players eventually, but Del Potro was fighting the sedition in his joints and ligaments almost from the start.”
