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At 2010 Australian Open, The Start Injury Woes For Juan Martin del Potro, He Was Seemingly More Worried About Argentine Soccer

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At the 2010 Australian Open, the first major tournament following his breakthrough first – and unfortunately only – major singles title at the 2009 U.S. Open, Juan Martin del Potro first began to have his chronic injury problems that would derail and stunt his career.
In the first part of his introduction to his book “Juan Martin del Potro: The Gentle Giant” (for sale and download here: https://www.amazon.com/Juan-Martin-del-Potro-Gentle/dp/1937559920/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=juan+martin+del+potro+gentle+giant&qid=1672417765&sprefix=Juan+MArtin+del+%2Caps%2C111&sr=8-1 author Sebastian Torok gives readers a glimpse into the Argentine superstar at the start of his injury woes and his passion for Argentine soccer.

The shimmering hallways inside Melbourne Park look like the inner tunnels of an anthill on the opening day of the Australian Open, the first major tennis competition of the season. Tennis players, male and female, family members, trainers, promoters, journalists, ball boys, former players and security guards are all packaged together, coming and going in dizzying fashion. The scene is like a Disney park of tennis, where languages, routines, clothes and humors are mixed. It is the second half of January 2010 and Juan Martín del Potro is in Australia as the winner of the previous major singles championship at the U.S. Open four months earlier. The man from Tandil, Argentina should look radiant, excited to once again challenge the top players in men’s tennis. However, he is worried. Something is not working well with his body. His right wrist, that unleashes his powerful forehand, hurts. At times, it hurts a lot. He fears that it could be something severe (so much so that later on he would have to have surgery in the United States).

Before Juan Martín entered the locker room, he saw the author of this book, who had covered his career since he was a young player for La Nación newspaper in Argentina. Del Potro abruptly stopped and asked if what was said about his Argentine football idols. It is true?

The short tempers between Argentine football stars Martín Palermo and Juan Román Riquelme had been public for years. Their differences were irreconcilable. And many fans, lovers of the goals of the optimistic No. 9 and the exquisite technique of No. 10, refused to accept certain stories, some of them enhanced by controversy. That was, no doubt, false, but somehow it had settled. The striking thing, in the specific case of del Potro, was that in the midst of the medical evaluation of his wrist in Melbourne and the tension leading into a Grand Slam tournament, he could isolate himself from the whole world of demands to show his more earthly and pontaneous side.

Del Potro is a football fan, an even bigger fan than he is of tennis. He practiced it as a boy at the Independiente club of Tandil, even before picking up a tennis racket. He enjoys it as an adult, going every time he can to La Bombonera to watch the Boca Juniors team and even playing “picaditos” – or friendly pick-up games – with friends at home. The most popular sport in the world cheers him up, makes him happy but also infuriates him. He can be competing anywhere in the world and, still, be aware of what happens in Argentine football. He can even take the time to write and send an email complaining about some failure by a referee in a match by River Plate, the archrival of his beloved Boca Juniors team.

Soccer also makes you scream like a child. Like on Tuesday, June 22, 2010 when del Potro went crazy in front of the television when Palermo, his friend and inspiration, scored a goal against Greece in the World Cup in South Africa. “This is great! It’s incredible. We went out to party and shouted from the balcony with my friends. I know how he fought every blow that life gave him; that’s why I got excited,” del Potro wrote in an email to me a few hours after the match. It became more understandable the meaning of that frank and surprising question about the world of soccer from the Australian Open, in the middle of the craziness of a Grand Slam tournament. Soccer is a subject that he likes to discuss. In this case, it is something that he turned to for a distraction from the ghosts and bad thoughts that would start to enter his mind.

“Juan Martin del Potro: The Gentle Giant” for sale and download here via amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1937559920/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_lRArEbY4VMWP3 tells the story of one of Argentina’s greatest tennis players and the most important of his generation. After winning the 2009 U.S. Open, defeating Roger Federer in a glorious five-set final, del Potro was poised to take over the tennis world. However, wrist problems developed and del Potro endured three surgeries over 15 months. One of the world’s most popular players, del Potro’s fan base grew as he made his comeback—watching him win his second Olympic medal in Rio in 2016, where he once lost to Andy Murray, but won the hearts of millions around the world. He followed up by leading Argentina to victory in the Davis Cup. Described as the “Gentle Giant,” del Potro has the sensitivity to comfort a ball girl hit during a match, to stop in the middle of the game to gaze at a butterfly, and to accompany a young fan in the last days of his life. However, when he grips the racket, he becomes one of the most destructive strikers of a tennis ball.

“This book is an unprecedented trip to the emotional and sporting aspect of one of the best tennis players of the last decade,” said Torok, the author of the book, an internationally regarded tennis writer for La Nacion and with ESPN in Argentina. “Juan Martin del Potro is someone who lived with tragedy since his childhood, a tennis player who hit bottom and had the strength to persevere multiple times. This book was created with more than 70 interviews of people who, in one way or another, had to do with the life of del Potro. I am very excited and proud that this book is now available in English around the world.”

The original version of the book was published in Spanish under the title “El Milagro Del Potro.” The English language book was translated by Luis Rossi of Argentina and Haley Hunt of Brookline, Mass.

About New Chapter Press

Founded in 1987, New Chapter Press (www.NewChapterMedia.com) is also the publisher of “The Greatest Tennis Matches of All-Time” by Steve Flink, “The Education of a Tennis Player” by Rod Laver with Bud Collins, “The Secrets of Spanish Tennis” by Chris Lewit, “The Bud Collins History of Tennis” by Bud Collins, “The Pros: The Forgotten Era Of Tennis” by Peter Underwood, “The Wimbledon Final That Never Was” by Sidney Wood, “Titanic: The Tennis Story” by Lindsay Gibbs, “Macci Magic: Extracting Greatness From Yourself And Others” by Rick Macci with Jim Martz, “Andy Murray, Wimbledon Champion: The Full Extraordinary Story” by Mark Hodgkinson, “Cattle To Courts: A History of Tennis In Texas” by Ken McAllister, “Sport of a Lifetime: Enduring Personal Stories From Tennis” by Judy Aydelott, “Trojan Tennis: A History of the Storied Men’s Tennis Program at the University of Southern California” by S. Mark Young, “Absolute Tennis: The Best And Next Way To Play The Game” by Marty Smith, “How To Permanently Erase Negative Self Talk So You Can Be Extraordinary” by Emily Filloramo, “Acing Depression: A Tennis Champion’s Toughest Match” by Cliff Richey and Hilaire Richey Kallendorf, “Your Playbook For Beating Depression: Essential Strategies For Managing and Living with Depression” by Cliff Richey and Mary Garrison, “Roger Federer: Quest for Perfection” by Rene Stauffer, “The Days of Roger Federer” by Randy Walker, “Jan Kodes: A Journey To Glory From Behind The Iron Curtain” by Jan Kodes with Peter Kolar, “Tennis Made Easy” by Kelly Gunterman, “On This Day In Tennis History” by Randy Walker, “A Player’s Guide To USTA League Tennis” by Tony Serksnis, “Court Confidential: Inside The World Of Tennis” by Neil Harman, “A Backhanded Gift” by Marshall Jon Fisher, “Boycott: Stolen Dreams of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games” by Tom Caraccioli and Jerry Caraccioli (www.Boycott1980.com), “Internet Dating 101: It’s Complicated, But It Doesn’t Have To Be” by Laura Schreffler, “How To Sell Your Screenplay” by Carl Sautter, “Bone Appetit: Gourmet Cooking For Your Dog” by Suzan Anson, “The Rules of Neighborhood Poker According to Hoyle” by Stewart Wolpin among others.

Juan Martin del Potro

Maradona’s Special Bond With Juan Martin del Potro

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Diego Maradona, one of the greatest Argentine athletes who led his nation to victory in the World Cup in 1986, passed away Wednesday at age of 60. In his wild life, the magnetic personality was often seen at Argentina’s Davis Cup matches and forged a close friendship with fellow sporting legend Juan Martin del Potro.

Leading Argentine sports journalist Sebastian Torok wrote of the connection and relationship between Maradona and del Potro in his new book “Juan Martin del Potro: The Gentle Giant,” published by New Chapter Press, for sale and download here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1937559920/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_V5UVFbM15A2ZJ?_x_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

The excerpt from the book the details the relationship, from the chapter called “Word from the Ten” below:

 

In the 1980s, the high point of joy for sports fans in Argentina was the World Cup victory by the light blue and white. It was the peak moment for the “No. 1 fan” in the stands cheering for Argentina in the Davis Cup final in Zagreb. Maradona is the name forever linked to the day June 29, 1986, where in Aztec Stadium in Mexico City he dazzled the world and achieved his dream that day and gave Argentina its second World Cup title. Whimsically that day of the final against West Germany did not correspond with his most notable performance of that World Cup campaign. That came against England in the quarterfinals where he scored two famous goals, including the famous “Hand of God” goal.

Passionate about tennis and sometimes controversial, Maradona inevitably is there each time Argentina plays in a big Davis Cup match and has privileged access to the privacy of del Potro in those moments of high concentration where only a few can command his attention.

The journeys of the Argentina Davis Cup team took Maradona to the Zagreb Arena in anticipation that something big could happen in the Davis Cup Final against Croatia. He was there with a broken heart hearing the news of the death of Fidel Castro, the Cuban leader whom he created a relationship with based on mutual admiration.

“When I heard the news it was like receiving a serve of del Potro in the chest,” said Maradona. When he was asked for an impression on del Potro for this book, the man with did the magic with his left hand and the No. 10 on his back preferred to turn it into a letter, entitled “Del Potro was Maradona against the English.”

“You could say that Martin, because I call him Martin, won my heart the day he won the Davis Cup. But no, man, no… That day he won the heart of all the Argentinians. He won mine when my loved parents passed away, Mrs. Tota and Don Diego, and he was there, present, to accompany me.

“How was I not going to accompany him to Croatia? I would go to the end of the world to cheer for him! For him and the entire Argentinian team. It was the bravest stop, the one to try and win the Davis Cup for the first time in history, as a visitor, against all odds… With everything against us is how I like it! That’s why I wanted to be there…

“Many people called me a jinx. Others said I just wanted the visibility and be the center of attention, but the only thing I wanted was to cheer, for all the Argentinians to be supporting them, behind him. The only thing I cared about was being in the grandstands. I didn’t even go to the hotel, until they called me. The skinny guy, who is longer than the Eiffel Tower, laughed when he saw me arrive. A phenomenon.

“In that final match, Delpo gave us a lesson to all the athletes and all the Argentinians: If we fight, we can do it. He knew better than anyone that it was a rough spot, but not impossible. What he did was something crazy…Being in a place like this, in a moment like this, it’s touching the sky with your hands. I lived that in Mexico in 1986. Martin lived it in Croatia.

“The skinny guy, that day, reached the hearts of the Argentinians, without a doubt. It was like a boiler, I swear. That’s how the Davis Cup matches are: lots of heat, lots of battles, adrenaline and screams… A steaming hot boiler. And del Potro turned it off with two big eggs like the rock of Tandil. He had to take and to bring everyone, he had a great responsibility. He was the one who had to take the flag and did it the best way. He beat everyone with hammers. Let it be very clear to all Argentinians, what Delpo was throwing weren’t balls, they were hammers! He wanted to destroy the ball each time he hit it. And I swear I was hitting with him.

“That’s why, when he invited me to go down to the locker room, when they were already champions and he told me to choose whatever I wanted to take back home as a gift, I choose the racket, because that racket was the weapon he used to win, but I also asked to kiss his hand. Because that hand made us lift the Cup.

“The skinny guy, Martin, Delpo, call him what you want, became a great master that we needed for a long time. He was Maradona against the English. That’s why I am going to be grateful for the rest of my life. For making me, making us, so very very happy. And to remember me when I needed it the most.”

Diego Maradona with Juan Martin del Potro
Diego Maradona with Juan Martin del Potro

Davis Cup Needs To Embrace Change In Order To Be “World Cup of Tennis”

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by Andrew Eichenholz

 

Followers compare the Davis Cup to the World Cup of the tennis world. That is far from the truth, as Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka have proven with both of their withdrawals from Switzerland’s upcoming tie against Belgium, and Federer’s decision to take the year off from the annual competition.

Keep this in mind: Switzerland was crowned as the top nation for men’s tennis just months ago. Now, with two of the best players on the planet out, the odds are heavily stacked against them to even get by a David Goffin-led Belgium squad.

In a sense, it is not much different than if Germany’s soccer team were to head to Russia for the 2018 World Cup without Thomas Muller and Manuel Neuer, possibly bowing out in the group stage.

That sounds silly because it simply will not happen.

World competitions in individual sports between every and all nations is meant to conjure a sense of national pride, not a fight to determine which country has the best athletes who feel like they have the time to show up.

This is not to blame tennis players. Compared to athletes who compete in other sports, tennis players do not have a break. Even their month-long “vacation” is full of anticipation and getting ready for the next year. It is not always easy to throw a way a week of time to risk fatigue or loss of form on a given court surface just to play for national honor.

Switzerland defeated Serbia, with Federer and Wawrinka in their native red to win their opening tie in 2014. The first thing that pops to mind is that they took down the man who was world No. 2 at the time, Novak Djokovic.

Wrong. Djokovic did not play, in need of rest ahead of a long season. The world missed out on a clash between three top-five stars.

That is why the Davis Cup needs to change, and do so quickly, while the sport is in its golden age.

If every player in the sport of tennis chose to partake in Davis Cup this season, there would be a fairly good chance that Switzerland would repeat as champions. Who would not want to see a Federer-Wawrinka against a Nadal-Ferrer led Spain in the final?

The wealth in tennis is spread around so much, that once nation never dominates for years on end. There is always a country that has extreme talent on the doubles court that sways a tie in one direction as well, giving them a chance for a major upset.

Then again, some of the sport’s best players do not even get a chance on the biggest stage, because the World Group only consists of 16 teams.

To give every nation a fair chance to truly enjoy the experience of world competition, why not make the annual tournament every three years, instead?

If the decision makers for the International Tennis Federation and the ATP World Tour were to find a major block of time, say a couple of weeks after the U.S. Open, therefore skipping the fall swing prior to the ATP World Tour Finals once every three years, why would players not get in on the action?

Much like January’s Hopman Cup uses a round robin style before culminating it all in a knock out round, why not find a format to expose some of the lesser-known countries a chance to show what they can do on the court, and make a spectacle for the world to see?

In Group II, the third tier of Davis Cup play, Bulgaria is scheduled to play Latvia. Both team’s stars, Grigor Dimitrov and Ernests Gulbis, respectively, are unlikely to play ahead of Indian Wells, one of the year’s biggest tournaments, just a week later.

Perhaps if that match came in a format highlighting all the teams rather than an elite few, fans would have a chance to see a matchup between a couple of the most talented athletes in the sport.

This annual competition will continue to find little attention and popularity if its best players are not involved. Forcing them to play Davis Cup three times in four years, when they may not even want to, does not enhance the attraction of the event.

John F. Kennedy once said, “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”

If the world wants to see exciting nation-based tennis competition in the future, success starts by getting together and thinking about it now.

2014 Swiss Davis Cup Team
2014 Swiss Davis Cup Team

NEW DAVIS CUP FORMAT BEING CRAFTED BY BUCHHOLZ, DAVIES

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By Charles Bricker

The outdated Davis Cup format, already under a strong attack by a consortium of Australian businessmen who want to turn it into a kind of World Cup, is now being assaulted from a second, much more influential source.

Butch Buchholz and Mike Davies, two former tennis pros with beaucoup credentials in the international marketing of the game, have been quietly working the last several months to transform the annual 11-month-long Davis Cup tournament into a two-week festival which they believe will streamline the event, make it significantly more attractive to television and, most importantly, bring the best players back into Cup play.

“I think I’ve got something the players would like in terms of a neater, tidier package of competition that would be less of a drain on the number of weeks they have to play. In addition, it’s my belief that the TV people will love it,” the Welsh-born Davies explained in a telephone interview from his home in Florida.

Ah, yes. The TV people and, by association, the sponsors. That’s the driving force in all sports and particularly in tennis and that’s where Buchholz and Davies appear to have an edge on the Aussies who are also trying to revamp Davis Cup.

Buchholz, himself a former U.S. Davis Cup player, took a small tournament called The Lipton in 1985 and turned it into the biggest non-Grand Slam event in tennis — the Sony Ericsson Open on Key Biscayne, Fl.

He did it with savvy marketing, by knowing how to attract and satisfy professional players and by his drive to take his tournament to the highest possible level short of a major. The Sony Ericsson Open is a combined men’s and women’s event which annually seems to hit record attendance, and it’s very possible that the concept being advanced by Buchholz and Davies will also be a combined event.

Davies said he doesn’t expect to nail down sponsors and budgeting until near the end of this year, but he’s already got a strong fix on the basics. Here are the key questions and answers:

* Will it still be called Davis Cup? Yes. Unlike the Aussie group, Buchholz and Davies want to continue Davis Cup competition and, in fact, are considering combining their two-week “festival of tennis” with the women’s Fed Cup.

* When would the festival be held? Possibly April, right after Key Biscayne. This, of course, would require the ATP (and the WTA if Fed Cup is included) to revamp their schedules. Currently, Davis Cup takes four weeks out of the ATP schedule — in February, July, September and December. The Buchholz-Davies concept saves two weeks at a time when ATP pros have become increasingly angry about the length of the season.

* How many nations are in the two-week competition? Possibly as many as 13 with 12 survivors of knock-out ties that take place the previous year, plus the host country, which gets an automatic berth.

* Where will it be played? Indoors or outdoors and in a different venue each year.

* What are the economics? With, presumably, all the major tennis nations in the festival, you’ve got the potential for any number of TV contracts — not just one or two — and most of the top players in the game at the same event.

* How does the ITF, which runs the Davis Cup, feel about having its current 11-month-long Davis Cup competition tinkered with? They can’t feel good about it. The ITF is resistant to almost any change, no matter how logical. Even now, with No. 1 Rafa Nadal not playing Davis Cup because of injury fears and No. 3 Roger Federer once again disdaining Davis Cup to concentrate on the ATP tour, the ITF just doesn’t see the need to change its format.

“At one time, Davis Cup was bigger than the Slams,” said Buchholz. “But things have changed. Today, it’s a hard sell because it’s lost a lot of world wide appeal from a media point of view. The top players are not playing.”

When the Aussie group announced earlier this year it was planning to try to replace Davis Cup with a Grand Slam of Nations, it got immediate endorsement from Nadal and Federer. Even without hard details, top players were for it because they’re in favor of anything that junks the current Davis Cup format.

Davies said he wants to work with the ITF, not against them as the Aussies are. But he’s not presenting any final plans until he has a firm budget and sponsors lined up.

One of the most appealing features of the Buchholz-Davies plan is that it takes this interminably long Davis Cup competition (four rounds in 11 months) and potboils it down to two weeks. You don’t have to scratch your head trying to remember who your country beat in the quarterfinal round three months ago because it has been so long since the previous tie that your memory has blanked out.

It’s like a shortened version of the Olympics.

“I know the business side of the ITF because I worked there,” said Davies. “I realize that just coming up with an idea is all well and good, but who has the plan to put together the competition, with over 130 countries competing?”

There’s little doubt that the players are going to climb on board the Buchholz-Davies plan. Most of them want to represent their countries, but Davis Cup as it’s presently formatted, just doesn’t work for players’ schedules.

No less a committed Davis Cupper than Andy Roddick this year declared that he can no longer play because the potential surface changes for a weekend and the interruption of his ATP tour plans inhibit his overall performance.

Knowing these two men as I do, I have no doubt that Buchholz and Davies are going to put together a final package and probably get some significant TV and sponsor commitments to their reform of Davis Cup. But I also know the ITF well enough to know that when the package is presented to them, they’ll want to reject it just out of belligerence.

The key to making this Davis Cup format change lies with the top players. Once Buchholz and Davies have a completed, detailed plan, they have to first take it to the ATP Players Council. When you’ve got almost every top 20 player saying, “We want this,” it’s going to make it very difficult for the ITF to continue it’s long-standing posture of lodging its feet in cement.

“Obviously, someone thinks they’re going to get hurt with something like what we’re proposing,” said Davies. “The major problem is that eight or nine countries may not have any home Davis Cup matches. But I think you have to look at what’s good for the overall competition.”

Charles Bricker can be reached at nflwriterr@aol.com