Twelve years after he first raised the trophy on championship Sunday, Juan Martin del Potro was thrilled to be back at his "second home" on Tuesday at the US Open—and says he has not given up hope for a return to competitive tennis.
The 32-year-old Argentine, sidelined from the tour for much of the past three years with a persistent knee injury, visted Flushing Meadows on Day 9 as a spectator, and his full schedule of activities included taking in the quarterfinal match between Daniil Medvedev and Botic Van De Zandschulp from a suite in Arthur Ashe Stadium, hitting with John McEnroe on the practice court and stopping by as a guest analyst for ESPN's Spanish-language broadcast.
"This place is amazing to me. I'm so happy to be back in my place, in my tournament, and I'm excited to be feeling better, to be back as a protagonist next year and be on court," he told McEnroe and ESPN's Chris McKendry from the practice courts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
"The knee is much better for now. I'm still recovering, but I'm on court, which is a good thing for me. I'm looking forward to being ready in a couple of months. If everything goes well, next season will be fine to start.
"When I was watching Medvedev's match, it was a little bit frustrating to me to watch these guys play and [have] me [be on the] outside... to not be the guy who's playing, fighting for the trophy. This is what's happened to me at the moment, but I'm going to fight to keep moving and hopefully, next year, I can be a protagonist again and playing tennis."
New York has held a special place in del Potro's heart since 2009, when he burst onto the Grand Slam scene as a 20-year-old, becoming the first man to defeat both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer en route to winning a major title. Shortly after, a pair of wrist injuries took him off tour for intermittent periods in 2010, and again in 2014-16, but his road to a resurgence wound through the Big Apple in 2018. Reaching career-high world No. 3 after his wrist injuries, del Potro reached his second major final before losing to Novak Djokovic in four sets.
With four wins against the world No. 1 in his career, del Potro also offered a snapshot analysis of the state of the men's game as Djokovic stands three matches away from completing the Grand Slam, or winning all four major tournaments in the same year.
"All the players are playing an aggressive game, with serves and forehands and very short points. From my point of view, a guy who makes a smart game, a smart play, he has the chance to win a tournament," he said.
"That's the reason, I think, that Novak is still playing. He has the experience, he has the game, and he's very smart on court. The other guys are very strong, but that's a little bit of a message to me that, if I'm healthy, I can be in that position again."
Del Potro has had four surgeries on his knee in the years since playing in his last tournament, the most recent of which came this March. Despite having not played in over two full seasons, he says he hopes to ramp up his training in the coming months as he looks forward to a comeback in 2022.
"I love the challenge. It could be a tennis challenge or a different challenge in life, and this is the toughest match of my career because I cannot deal with this kind of injury, this kind of pain that I've had, but I'm still trying," he said.
"I believe in myself that this is going to be in the past, for sure, and I think it's also a message to young kids, all players, all people around the world that they never have to give up in following a dream, and that's what I'm doing."
