The tandilense Juan Martín Del Potro, in full recovery from a right knee injury that keeps it inactive for more than two years, will return next Tuesday to the US Open, scene where he conquered his only Grand Slam in 2009, to rally with a tennis legend: American John McEnroe.
Del Potro, 32 years old and former world number three (now ranks 746 due to inactivity) will step back onto the concrete of one of the auxiliary courts at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center complex in New York on September 7.
The Tandilense, who last competed in June 2019 at the Queen’s Open, in London, and on grass, suffered a series injury to his right knee that required four surgeries with different specialists and only in the last month did he complete a rehabilitation process much more auspicious than the previous ones with a single mission, that of returning to compete on the circuit.
The setting chosen by “La Torre de Tandil” to recover old sensations on Flushing Meadows, where he won the US Open in 2009 after beating Swiss Roger Federer in the final and in which he lost the 2018 definition against Serbian Novak Djokovic, coincidentally the last time you played it.
The one chosen by Del Potro for his essay in New York is McEnroe, 62, and a tennis legend. McEnroe or “Big Mac” was world number one in the 1980s, conquering 77 ATP titles, seven of them Grand Slam, including four times the US Open, three Wimbledon and was also a finalist at Roland Garros and a semifinalist in Australia.
The objective pursued by “Delpo” is to overcome some discomfort that still persists in the knee and increase the intensity of his training in Key Biscayne, where he has his base of operations, with the illusion of returning to the circuit in 2022, perhaps at the Australian Open or more likely at the ATP 250 in Delray Beach scheduled from February 11 to 20 and already used in other returns, when he was inactive due to his wrist injuries.
Del Potro won 22 titles during his brilliant career, the most important being the 2009 US Open, and he also won two Olympic medals (bronze in London 2012 and silver in Rio 2016), and went decisive factor in the only Davis Cup that Argentina won in history, in the 2016 final against Croatia, in Zagreb.
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