TENNIS HISTORIAN AND WRITER RICHARD EVANS SHARES HIS VIEWS ON JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO

For the Love of Delpo by Richard Evans

 

There have been suggestions, from quite informed quarters, that Juan Martin del Potro should be named the men’s Player of the Year. Really? On what basis?

The lanky Argentine is ranked 67 in the world and has not reached a Grand Slam or ATP Tour final at any level all year. He has suffered losses in ATP 1000 events to players like Horacio Zeballos, Jack Sock and, twice on clay in Stuttgart and Munich, to Philipp Kohlschreiber. He reached the semi-final at Delray Beach, a tournament he has won in the past, but lost to Sam Querrey. He did get to the quarter finals at the US Open but was outplayed by Stan Wawrinka in four sets.

So…. Player of the Year. Why? Because none of the above really matters. It was Delpo’s tortuous path back to full fitness after years of struggling with wrist problems that required four operations which kept his results at a modest level throughout the opening months of the year. The very suggestion that this quiet, charming man should be elevated to such a status is all about what he has managed to achieve in the last two months – beating Novak Djokovic 7-6, 7-6 in the first round of the Olympics in Rio before going on to defeat Rafa Nadal in the semis before losing heroically to Andy Murray in the final. And then, of course, it is about how he managed to turn the tables on Murray in front of a wildly partisan Scottish crowd in Glasgow and grab a five set victory that set Argentina on the road to the Davis Cup final.

And, as much as anything, it is about love.

Love may mean nothing in the umpire’s chair but it means everything to Delpo’s increasingly large army of fans – a fervent posse of die-hard supporters who have spread across the world, far beyond the confines of his home town of Tandil, or indeed Argentina.

Their affection is not misplaced. Those of us who have met the man and sat through many of his press conferences have discovered a charming, quietly spoken, almost sheepish individual who has grasped the English language sufficiently to tell you how tough it has been for him through all the set backs with his wrist and how he doubted he would ever be able to play his best tennis on the world’s greatest stages ever again. Indeed, more than once, he has told us, “I was so close to quit tennis.”

But he has always managed a little smile; a little recognition of the ironies and hardships of life and of how you must face up to them if you want to emerge from the shadows. It says everything about Juan Martin that the locker room welcomed him back with open arms – this giant of a man who had the potential, when fully fit and confident, to blast them all off court.

By virtue of his demeanor, courage and civility, he is a man who is impossible to dislike. And the tennis world is now recognizing that fact as he draws on sentiment once reserved for Roger Federer or Rafa Nadal.

In a way, we thought it might all happen sooner and it would have done if fate had not intervened. I first took note of this bean pole of a young man when he arrived in Washington DC for Donald Dell’s ATP event in the summer of 2008 with a run of three successive title winning performances across two continents. He had won titles in Stuttgart and Kitzbuhel on clay and then flown across to Los Angeles, taking the flight, the time change and surface switch in his long stride to win that tournament, too, beating a somewhat surprised Andy Roddick in the final.

In Washington, we noted the big serve thundering down out of the skies and the mighty forehand and watched him stride through that field as well before overcoming Serbia’s Viktor Troicki in the final. He had become the first player in history to win the first four titles of his career in successive tournaments. In a month, he had become star.

The US Open was step too far for him that year, although he did reach the quarter final but in 2009 he was ready. Utilizing that mighty forehand, del Potro allowed Nadal just six games in the semi-final but Federer was waiting for him in the final and he seemed to be heading for a predictable defeat after going behind by two sets to one. Federer was in his pomp, winning at will, apparently invincible. The great Swiss was on a 40 match winning streak and you would have got very long odds on an Argentine victory before the match, let alone when he lost the third set.

But Federer had been upset by a challenged call at the end of the second set when a big del Potro forehand down the line was called out. HawkEye, an invention of the digital age that had never met with Roger’s approval, showed the shot had nicked the line and the original call which would have given the Swiss set point at 5-4 in that second set was overruled. Federer was still muttering about it when the youngster snatched the set from him by 7-5 in the tie breaker and it was a while before he regained control.

But even when the champion took the third, the unflappable 20-year-old didn’t panic and continued to make Federer work, staying with him through the fourth and winning the tie break to level it up. Then, to everyone astonishment, he took the match and the title away from Federer, hitting winners all over the court as he wrapped it up 6-2.

There seemed to be no doubt at the time that tennis had found a genuine new star – a player equipped technically and temperamentally to elbow his way into the Top4 club that was in the process of solidifying in grip on the men’s game.

But the problem with Delpo’s left wrist flared up almost immediately after his triumph in New York and, astonishingly he remained the only man to win a Grand Slam other than Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray between the French Open of 2005 and the US Open of 2014 when Marin Cilic broke the spell.

Now the careers of del Potro and Cilic are going to entwine again because they will be the leaders of their teams when they meet in November’s Davis Cup final in Croatia. Cilic, too, has re-discovered his best form in recent weeks, beating Murray to win Cincinnati and playing so well to dominate France in the Davis Cup semi-final.

Like del Potro, Cilic is a quietly spoken, courteous man who is exceptionally well liked on the tour. The Davis Cup final will be fiercely fought but, unless something strange happens, it will be a gentlemanly affair.

Is that what TV networks want? Are they thrilled with the idea of a final between Argentina and Croatia? Probably not. It is simply a fact that a final between Britain and France, with Murray on one side, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils on the other and Yannick Noah in the French captain’s chair, would have been an easier sell.

The indignation of some del Potro and Cilic supporters when this was suggested was good to see. But it was a sentimental reaction and bean-counters in the back offices of television companies don’t deal in sentiment.

The fact is that a new scheduling format needs to be devised that ensures television’s continued interest no matter who gets to the final. You do that by staging a mega Davis Cup Finals, with eight teams, all played in one place over two weeks, thus concentrating the minds of everyone in sport and ensuring the momentum carries people’s fervor through to the end.

I understand members of the ATP Players Council, which met in New York, was not terribly impressed when ITF President David Haggerty talked about tweaking the format. They want greater change than that. The newly announced Laver Cup, played every two years and involving six players per team, has already been embraced by Federer, Djokovic and other top players and, if the ITF don’t want to see that grow as a rival to the Davis Cup, they had better act fast.

In the meantime, I hope the world wide fan base for both Juan Martin del Potro and Marin Cilic grows and that both have a great end to their seasons. But Player of the Year? I think Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray will have a bit to say about that.

Topics: 10sballs.com, Andy Murray, Davis Cup, Juan Martin Del Potro, Marin Cilic, Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal, Richard Evans, Rio Olympics, Roger Federer, Sports, Tennis News, US Open

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