The promise that Del Potro will try to keep for the third star: “Messi and the national team put me in training”

Juan Martin del Potro Away from the fields, forced by the physicality of the knee, but close in spirit. But this Wednesday, Tandil’s man confided that he will have to start training to keep a promise he had made from the title that the Argentine national team obtained at the World Cup in Qatar 2022: try to participate in the next US Open, which he had already won in 2009.

“If Argentina had won the World Cup, I would have tried to play the US Open. Now (Lionel) Messi and the team have put me in training. I still have a lot of pain. Before Qatar, I didn’t have it in mind, but now I think about it a lot.”slipped the ‘Tower’ from Tandil, in statements to the site Tennis news.

The Tandil man officially said goodbye to the circuit in February last year, when he took part in the Argentina Open at the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club and fell to Azuleño in straight sets Federico Delbonis. Gone is a long string of frustrations from injuries and surgeries on both knees.

Despite the difficulty it represents for him to return to court, the Buenos Aires native wants to keep his promise and has said that he will “train again”.

Del Potro, winner of the silver medals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the bronze medal at London 2012, achieved his all-time best ranking in August 2018, when he finished third for three consecutive weeks. For this reason he also stated that his outstanding account of him had to “be number 1”.

“The only thing I missed was being number one in the world. It’s always been a dream and I’ve always worked to be the best, but I’m also very proud of my career,” said the tennis player, 34 and 1. 98 meters high. .

“I never made it because it was (Rafael) Nadal, (Roger) Federer or (Novak) Djokovic. When I look at the standings or I see the years of my career and who I was battling to be number one, it’s also very It’s nice to know that they were the ones who didn’t let me realize that dream,” he said.

What is Del Potro doing in San Pablo?

Tandil’s man is in San Pablo because he is the ambassador of a tournament that brings together 32 of the best Under 16 rackets in South America (16 boys and 16 girls) and which will give the champions a wild card to play in the Roland Garros youth tournament . A unique occasion, made even more special by the presence of the man from Tandil.

The dream of playing the Parisian Grand Slam is the one shared by all South American players, who train and take their first professional steps on clay. And thanks to this event, called the “Roland-Garros Junior Series by Renault”, two young tennis players will be able to make it happen.

The tournament is the result of a collaboration between the French Tennis Federation (FFT), the South American Tennis Confederation (COSAT) and the Brazilian Tennis Confederation (CBT), with the support of the International Federation (ITF), which regulates the junior circuits. . It will call up players from ten countries in the region, host Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela, to the powder courts of the Sociedade Harmonia de Tenis, in the capital São Paulo.

The albiceleste representatives are Luna Cinalli, from Santa Fe, 14 years old and 155th in the world junior ranking; Sol Larraya Guidi of Tandil (15th and 172nd) and Valentín Garay of Ushuaia (also 15th and located on the 774th step of the classification).

The two champions will earn a place to play in the main junior draws in Paris, which would otherwise be out of reach for the Argentines, given that the “cut” for the big junior tournaments is around 60th in the standings.