It’s the end of a great career for Juan Martin Del Potro, who will have marked the world of tennis with his kindness, but above all his immense talent. The 33-year-old Argentinian is one of the rare players, like Stan Wawrinka or Marin Cilic, to have achieved the feat of winning a Grand Slam tournament when he faced the three tennis legends, Nadal, Federer and Djokovic. Winner of the US Open in 2009 against the Swiss, he achieved the feat of his career and more than thirteen years later, he decided to put an end to it, at home in Argentina, during the tournament in Buenos Aires.
Almost three years after his last match in the capital of his country of birth, Juan Martin Del Potro had decided to return there for a match that looked like a farewell in front of his home crowd. As he serves for what will probably be the last service of his career, the 1m98 colossus collapses under the influence of emotion. He just can’t serve and puts his hand in front of his eyes, unable to hold back his tears. The public then begins to encourage him even more, but impossible to contain the emotion in him and the tennis player will take his towel to wipe his tears under the interrupted songs of his fans in the stands.
I’m happy because my last game, probably, was on a court and not giving a press conference
A sequence of very strong emotion and at the height of a player adored by the public as by the other players on the circuit. After the match, he naturally spoke in front of the 5,000 spectators who came to watch the event. “Today I gave everything I had, until the last point. I’m happy because my last game, probably, was on a court and not giving a press conference”, he said after the meeting. Often disturbed by physical glitches, Juan Martin Del Potro took this difficult decision reluctantly. “My health leads me to have to make a decision. I don’t have as much strength as many people think. (…) Today I wish I could sleep without pain”he blurts out.