A look at Juan Martin Del Potro’s performance in 2010
For Juan Martin Del Potro, 2010 has been a remarkably difficult year. There are few avid tennis fans who do not know of the young Argentine and his ascent in the world of tennis. The 21-year-old professional tennis player has quickly made a name for himself
in the sport, and many players have had their hopes anchored on him to be the next big phenomenon in tennis.
Juan Martin Del Potro, born 23 September 1988, is the third highest ranking Argentine player and 34th
ranked player in the world. Del Potro was included in the top 10 rankings for the first time in October 2008 by the Association of Tennis Professionals. His highest career ranking was recorded at the world number 4 position which he reached in January
2010.
This season kicked off for Del Potro with his participation in the AAMI Kooyong Classic in Melbourne, Australia. Del Potro started the tournament with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Croatia’s world number 24 Ivan Ljubicic. This moved him up to the position of world
number 4 on January 11. His next match was a faceoff against French player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on the second day of the Kooyong exhibition tournament, but Del Potro withdrew from this tournament due to a wrist injury.
Del Potro entered the Australian Open 2010 with this injury and struggled to perform well. He managed to defeat Americans Michael Russell and James Blake, and German Florian Mayer despite his battle with fatigue, exhaustion and injury. However, he fell to
eventual semi-finalist Marin Cilic in five sets, 7–5, 4–6, 5–7, 7–5, 3–6. However, during the course of this tournament, Del Potro could not progress and fell to world number 5.
Following his defeat at the Australian Open 2010, Del Potro missed many tournaments, such as the Masters tournament at Indian Wells. Although he withdrew from Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, he regained his position as the world number 4 as Andy Murray was defeated
early on. He also withdrew from Barcelona and the Rome Masters.
On the 4th of May, Del Potro opted for surgery to recover from his wrist injury. On the 19th of May, the Argentine issued a statement saying he would not be defending his title at the 2010 US Open, because of his injury and the consequent
surgery, and that his next tournament would be the Paris Masters. However, on July 22nd, the USTA reported that Juan Martin Del Potro would compete to defend his title in the US Open 2010, while the player himself did not mention this and maintained
that his comeback tournament would be the Thailand Open. He withdrew from the 2010 US Open tournament a week before it commenced, citing that he did not think he could perform as well as this tournament required.
This is in contrast to his success in 2009 at the US Open tournament, where Juan Martin Del Potro captured his first Grand Slam trophy. The then 20-year-old player defeated Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals of this tournament to reach the finals against Roger
Federer, whom he also defeated. He is the first man to ever beat both Rafa and Federer during the same Grand Slam tournament. This victory also made him the second man from Argentina and the fifth youngest man in the history of the game to win the US Open
tournament.
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