@tumcarayol I wrote about Juan Martin del Potro and his endless injuries.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2020/feb/16/juan-martin-del-potro-fights-through-surgery-to-retrieve-tennis-career
Juan Martín del Potro fights through surgery to retrieve tennis career
US Open winner has admitted to depression and thoughts of retirement while overcoming wrist and knee injuries
Last June Juan Martín del Potro announced he would be undergoing surgery on his fractured right knee. The video of his announcement is brutal. Even beyond the revelation he was unsure if he had already played the final match of his career, it is the sight of welling tears as he fiddled with his fingers that is difficult to watch. Del Potro already seemed shattered then, but after six months of rehabilitation, consulting doctors and changing his diet, even everyday activities like walking up stairs were still painful. In January, he revealed his second surgery with a simple text statement. It seemed to be a reflection of where his head was at.
Since 2010 Del Potro has missed around four years of his career with four wrist surgeries and now two surgeries on his right knee. When he has been healthy enough to take the court, there have been only small periods, after long months of slowly readjusting his wrists to the stresses of tennis, that he has been able to play freely without the fear of his body directing his decisions on and off the court.
Del Potro’s career has slowly become one of the great “what if” debates of the sport. He is not just a ball of untapped talent but has demonstrated his mental fortitude by extracting what he could from the small crumbs of a career he has been given. He broke through as a youngster, winning the 2009 US Open at 21 by beating Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer back to back. Each time he has returned from a long layoff, he has worked through long periods of rehab before patiently rebuilding. The problem is simple: whenever he reaches a career high, injuries invariably scupper his hopes of going further.
At his best Del Potro’s forehand may be the most delightful stroke in the world. Gasps from the crowd are the soundtrack to his forehand and he consistently strikes it impossibly flat and hard. In theory, crushing the ball at such a pace with minimal topspin should be an extremely low percentage and inconsistent stroke but his mastery over the stroke is so complete he consistently lands his blows. Throughout his career, he has shown his ability to take the racket out of the hands of every top player he has encountered.
One of the greatest triumphs of the previous decade is how Del Potro’s forehand, and his trust in his weapon, has saved his career. When the Argentinian returned in 2016 after his third and fourth wrist surgeries, his injuries had robbed him of his backhand. He had no choice but to slice most of his backhands and he hated it. As his rivals mercilessly attacked the gaping hole in his game, he encountered modest success in his early tournaments but returning to previous heights seemed impossible. Del Potro had returned to win, not just to play tennis, and he was unhappy. “If I don’t have a chance to win a grand slam I don’t feel it’s me,” he said.
His outlook changed after the worst draw of his career. He faced Novak Djokovic in the first round of the Rio Olympics and so Del Potro played like a man with nothing to lose. By the end of the encounter, both men were in tears. Djokovic sobbed as he left the court and Del Potro wept with joy. He was emboldened by the victory, reaching the final before losing against Andy Murray, and he made up for his backhand deficiencies by taking his forehand on more than ever before. Over the following two years, he returned to No 3 and he crowned his comeback with a return to the US Open final, which he lost against Djokovic. He seemed to stand on the verge of finally getting what he wanted.
Instead, a month later, he was gone again. At the Shanghai Masters in October 2018, he slipped during a match and fractured his right knee. It seemed even tougher to take than his chronic wrist problems: tennis players suffer similar innocuous slips every day with little more than a graze, yet it was of course he who had the bad luck of shattering his kneecap on the floor.
Rehab is an absurd existence for an athlete. From the daily sensation of hearing the roar of the crowd while demonstrating incredible athletic feats, suddenly they are trapped alone in an empty gym, charged with relearning the most basic body movements. After a lifetime of solving their own problems alone on the court, they are suddenly at the mercy of different doctors all arguing for different solutions.
The adjustment can be tough and the mental strain of Del Potro’s injuries weighed on him between his second and third surgeries when his whole arm was in a cast and he felt useless. He says he “saw everything black”: he became depressed. He sat around the house eating food, gaining weight and doing little else. As it became clear the second surgery had not succeeded, he balked at the thought of surgeons cutting open his body again. He wondered if it was time to pick up books and study. That time, he found the strength to return.
“I had lived that situation three times with my left hand,” he said. “Three times are too many. After each operation, I thought the final solution would come and no, I was wrong. I saw my [outlook] again all black. I surrounded myself with people who supported and encouraged me, but the ghosts kept spinning.” It seems that he has arrived at a similar crossroads in his career. But still he put on a brave face. A few days ago, he uploaded a video of himself back in rehab, relearning basic movements, still smiling. It is hard to know what the future holds for him – if his knee will even allow him to come back again and whether he even wants to put himself through further mental and physical stress. But he is still there, still battling his demons until the end.
