From Argentina, in words for the newspaper The NationJuan Martín del Potro painfully opens, the giant who managed to put fear into the bodies of the three giants in the era of absolute tyranny. “I am still in the process of understanding what life is like without tennis, because it is difficult for me, it is the truth. Today it is still difficult for me,” admits the Argentine, tortured by injuries: broken wrists and shattered kneecaps, operating rooms and more and more doctors; an endless number of vicissitudes that ended up consuming a tennis player who got there but who, if he had not been so punished by physical inclemency, could have perfectly earned a space of long-standing privilege in the history of his sport. He reached third place in the rankinghe won the Davis, two Olympic medals (bronze in 2012 and silver in 2016) and left with an outstanding achievement on his hands, the 2009 US Open; precisely, the final great title achieved by an Ibero-American component.
From his weakening, from the subsequent ten years of threats and suffering of the giant, retired in 2022 because his body told him to backstitch, a kind of wasteland. It produces Latin America, but the possibility of finding another champion seems distant today. There is no mistake in his presence among the hundred best – six Argentines, two Chileans and one Brazilian – but Del Potro went as far as he could and his success is remembered more and more from the past. He paraded for the last time in the master meeting in the 2013 edition, stopped by Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in the group stage, and from there, only a marginalized spark, that of Diego Schwartzman in 2020. The Buenos Aires man did not even make the cut authentic and now dominates Europe with an iron fist, despite the fact that this year a couple of exceptions have leaked into the photo, those of the American Taylor Fritz and the Australian Alex de Miñaur. There is no trace of South America.
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The admirer longs for the old days, not to mention Guillermo Vilas, winner of the Masters in ’74, Melbourne, and in places of long-standing prestige: twice he triumphed in the major from Australia (1978 and 1979), one at Roland Garros (1977) and another in New York (1977). Then came the lightning of the Ecuadorian Andrés Goméz y los Ríos, Gaudio or Coria, and of course the footprint of the Brazilian Spring Kuerten, who reached the top, took over the arena until a Martian named Rafael landed and was also crowned as a musician; It happened in Lisbon, 2000, prevailing over Andre Agassi himself. Later, before Del Potro’s rise, the endorsement was picked up by a formidable competitor like David Nalbandian, the latest Ibero-American musician, in 2005, Shanghai.
“I surprised everyone,” he said then, after knocking down Federer 6-7 (4), 6-7 (11), 6-2, 6-1 and 7-6 (3), after four hours. and 33 minutes. He was 23 years old and broke a sequence of 35 consecutive victories for the chimerical Swiss, whose schemes were blown up. Three years ago, the Argentine had lost the Wimbledon final against Lleyton Hewitt. “What I would like now is for the season not to end. I look forward to playing more tournaments. My decent is in the air,” the champion then transmitted, superior in the group stage to Ivan Ljubicic and Guillermo Coria, and also to Nikolai Davydenko in the semifinals. Nalbandian retired in 2013, aware that his time had been completed with Federer, Djokovic and Nadal on the mat, and then he took up driving in rallies. From him, a truncated dream, that of Del Potro, and the flash of Schwartzman.
“I wanted to be number one. And I felt like I could be. But I broke my knee. I always had that… that little thorn that, well, I don’t know, what happened almost happened and it was an education. But, with hindsight, I more than fulfilled the expectations I had with tennis and for me it was an honor to do my career alongside Novak, Rafa, Roger, Wawrinka, Murray, Ferrer. I’m going to lie down calmly saying: ‘I’m done, what more can I ask from tennis?’, the man from Tandil answers. The Nationwhile the option of touching the delight again is seen as more and more difficult because there is no figure scheme in the making. Without him in the setting, the last existing hope, a landscape conditioned for a tennis that observes the present with resignation and relives the past with both inclination and longing is projected.
GOODBYE TO THE BACKWARDS TO ONE HAND
AC | Turin
In line with the trend of recent years, the current Masters edition offers a revealing reference: for the first time since the eighties, there is no competitor who uses the one-handed backhand.
The average permanence of the last eight classified players is 25.3, practically identical to that of a year ago (25.2), and there are only two master tennis players, Zverev (2018 and 2021) and Medvedev (2020).
The competition offers the following duels: Medvedev-Fritz (not before 2:00 p.m., Movistar+) and Sinner-De Miñaur (not before 8:30 p.m.). In addition, the Catalan Marcel Granollers will debut in the doubles, together with Horacio Zeballos.
He and the Argentine face (not before 6:00 p.m.) Harri Heliövaara and Henry Patten. It is the Spaniard’s ninth appearance in the Masters Cup and he triumphed in 2012, with Marc López.
2024-11-10 20:38:00