Juan Martín del Potro announced this Saturday his retirement from tennis after many years of ordeal due to injuries. The Argentine had planned to return to the tracks this week to play the tournaments in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. That plan still stands, but these will be the last ones he plays in his professional career.
Delpo spoke at a press conference prior to the start of the Argentine tournament next week to give the important news. «I have spent a long time feeling and imagining one of the most difficult that I have to face and transmit. Everyone expects me to make a return to tennis, it may not be so, and perhaps it will be more of a farewell than a return , “he said.
🚨🎾 “Maybe it’s more of a farewell than a return”, Juan Martín Del Potro on his participation in the Argentina Open on TyC Sports. pic.twitter.com/IFslLAcIXr
– TyC Sports (@TyCSports) February 5, 2022
The Tower of Tandil remained standing despite the emotion that went through it from top to bottom during the press conference, holding back tears to acknowledge that it will not be able to continue the battle despite the fact that it will compete again from June 2019.
«I have been making too much effort to be able to continue and the knee has me living a nightmare. For many years I have been trying alternatives, treatments, doctors and different ways to solve it, but I can’t,” he confessed.
« I never imagined retiring from tennis if it wasn’t playing and on the court, and I couldn’t find a better tournament than the one in Buenos Aires to do it. After these weeks, God will say what happens to my future, but today I have to choose to live as a 33-year-old person, trying not to have pain, and not as a professional athlete who, to this day, I feel and therefore never I lowered my arms. It’s a tough decision,” he added.
Del Potro confessed that he is also registered in Rio de Janeiro with the intention of playing in another special place, where he won the Olympic silver medal in 2016. The 2009 US Open champion confessed the difficulty in “dealing with the pain” in his daily life, without closing the door to the appearance of a solution or a change for the better.
