"He has the heart to challenge the top players.” Jim Courier, who has first-hand experience facing elite contemporaries, chose these words to describe Juan Martin del Potro after the Argentine beat Roger Federer in a final-set tiebreaker to win this year’s Indian Wells Masters. Del Potro also saved three match points in the dramatic victory, his fourth over Federer in six final-round encounters.
Courier could be accused of cliché, but doing so would diminish the achievements of today’s top players—Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic—as well as del Potro, their kryptonite, foil or friend--depending on the day. In this era of men’s tennis, one utterly dominated by an exceptional few, internal belief is as important, if not more so, than anything tangible on the outside.
But it doesn’t hurt to complement heart with the hardest forehand in the game. Or with one the sport’s most vocal fan bases, a traveling phalanx that rivals even Federer’s Swiss-flag-wearing army in intensity. Just ask Federer, who has been on the receiving end of both more times than he’d care to remember.
“Many fans give me too much love on court, off court as well,” del Potro said this March in Indian Wells, after winning his first Masters trophy.
“This is what I miss when I was injured.”
Many fans give me too much love on court, off court as well. This is what I miss when I was injured.
Nine years ago, a US Open crowd watched a 20-year-old del Potro turn tennis on its head with an impressive display of might. On that day, the 6-foot-6 baseline bruiser was David, and he slayed Goliath Federer, who was attempting to win his third straight Grand Slam title and sixth consecutive US Open. In five sets, del Potro backed up his semifinal drubbing of Nadal by winning his first major.
And then, just a few months later, del Potro ran into a major problem: wrist troubles. They lingered like an unkempt closet—try as one might to clean it out, it inevitably gets messy again. His first surgery, in 2010, was on his right wrist; the next three were on his left. In 2014 and ’15, a stretch that saw del Potro in nearly as many hospitals as tournaments, he would play a total of only 14 matches. He endured enough physical pain and spirit-sapping setbacks that he considered retiring.
“It’s been horrible for me,” he lamented at the 2015 season-opening tournament in Sydney. “One doctor would say something to me; another would say something different. It was difficult to believe one or the other.”
In June 2015, Dr. Richard Berger, an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in wrist care at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, prepared the 26-year-old for yet another surgery. The two had gotten to know each other well over the prior two years. This time, there was cautious optimism.
In February 2016, with a ranking of No. 1,041, del Potro returned at the Delray Beach Open, and he hasn’t missed extended time since.
But something was still holding del Potro back: his backhand. He could blast his signature forehand without issue, but all the left-wrist operations made his two-hander harder to strike.
“It was a little pressure for me to try not to miss easy forehands or not make double faults,” del Potro said after winning his first match back in Delray, “because I have to keep working and improving on my backhand to compete at this level. I think I’m in the middle of the process to solve the problem with my backhand.”
The answer to del Potro’s two-handed problem was twofold. First, develop a capable one-handed slice. And second, hit a lot of forehands.
Del Potro did both, to great effect, in 2016. He beat Djokovic in the first round of the Olympics and Nadal in the semifinals to clinch a second career medal. He reached the quarterfinals at a Slam for the first time since 2013; he won his first final in nearly three years; he beat Andy Murray in a five-set Davis Cup semifinal match in Scotland. To top it off, the Tower of Tandil gave Argentina its long-awaited Davis Cup when he rallied from two sets down to beat top Croat Marin Cilic in Zagreb.
“He’s a threat anywhere,” Martina Navratilova says of del Potro, who since returning has reached the French Open semifinals, Wimbledon quarterfinals and the US Open semifinals.
A return to the US Open semis seemed unlikely for del Potro last year. In the fourth round, listless and ailing, he trailed Dominic Thiem two sets to none on the Grandstand.
“Then I saw the crowd waiting for more tennis, waiting for my good forehands, good serves,” del Potro remembered. “I took all that energy to change in a good way, and thought about fighting and not retiring.”
Rejuvenated, del Potro won the third set, 6–1, then saved two match points in the fourth with aces. He forced a fifth with a searing forehand winner that recalled his halcyon days. The fans were delirious. But it wasn’t just old faithfuls that helped push del Potro past Thiem—it was his steadily improving backhand.
“I made my best backhands of the tournament in the important moments of the match,” del Potro said after the battle. “It’s a good signal for the future.”
Two days later, in a tight four-setter, del Potro defeated Federer for the second time at the US Open; he saved four set points in a third-set tiebreaker.
Courier, who hit as many forehands as possible to hide his unorthodox, baseball-grip backhand, points to del Potro’s adjustments as a reason for the 29-year-old’s return to the top.
“He’s been able to overcome some of the wrist problems, make the backhand more of a neutral shot,” says the four-time Grand Slam champion. “He doesn’t have to slice it quite as much as he was slicing when he initially came back from left wrist surgery.”
Another reason for del Potro’s successful second act has been his play against top players, particularly Federer. While he’s 7–18 against Federer overall, he’s 6–7 in matches that have gone to a final set.
“He put himself out there with no double-hander almost, but just happy to slice and still take losses,” Federer said after his loss to del Potro in this year’s Indian Wells final. “But he was happy enough playing this way, which I admire a lot.
“It’s a great story. That’s why I’m also very happy for him.”
The rivalry between Federer and del Potro may not have the sizzle of Federer-Djokovic or the stakes of Federer-Nadal, but Federer and del Potro have given us instant classics for nearly a decade, with no end in sight. Federer’s five-set survival at the 2009 French Open, with Nadal conspicuously absent from the final four, may be his most important win over del Potro; a 19–17 third-set triumph in the 2012 Olympic semifinals at the All England Club is also in the discussion.
Given Federer’s resistance to clay and the short grass season, hard courts are where the next chapters of this rivalry—one of tennis’ best—will unfold.
“Beating him another time in this amazing tournament,” del Potro said last year, “is so important to me.”
The Argentine looked very much in form in dismissing American Donald Young in straight sets in the first round here on Monday, and whomever del Potro faces in New York will be tasked with one of tennis’ tallest orders. At Wimbledon, Nadal needed five sets to beat del Potro and his 107-m.p.h. forehand. In this era of men’s tennis, there’s the Big Four; but in terms of size, shots and heart, it doesn’t get much bigger than del Potro.
