Juan Martin del Potro reveals injury hell before saying goodbye to tennis against Novak Djokovic

Juan Martin del Potro says he wants to live my life without pain as he prepares to face Novak Djokovic in an exhibition match to commemorate the end of his tennis career.

In an 11-minute interview uploaded to Instagram ahead of their Dec. 1 match at Estadio Mary Tern de Weiss in Buenos Aires, del Potro, 36, explained how ongoing surgeries and complications with his right knee have affected his quality of life. .

“I haven't run, climbed stairs, kicked a ball or played tennis since I was 31,” he said. Am I supposed to spend the next fifteen years of my life like this so that they get a knee replacement at fifty and I'm living well at sixty?

Some doctors have advised the Argentine, who broke his right kneecap twice in eight months between 2018 and 2019, to now undergo knee replacement surgery. Del Potro takes six to eight pills a day for pain relief, anti-inflammatory treatment and anxiety.

It feels like my knee has hit me, and I have undergone eight operations, he said, adding that life on the sidelines of social sporting events like football and padel with friends, bringing the drinks and making the videos is torture has been.

It's very difficult to put on a facade 24 hours a day, he said.

Del Potro's last competitive tennis match was also in Buenos Aires, in the first round of the 2022 Argentina Open against compatriot Federico Delbonis. He underwent a fifth operation on his right knee after a 6-1, 6-3 defeat, deciding to keep the procedure private. He would only announce that operation and three further procedures if he returned to tennis, he decided, or if it became clear there was no realistic hope of returning to competition.

I couldn't bear the pain in my legs anymore, he said.

Del Potro underwent four operations on his right knee between 2019 and 2021, after first shattering it at the 2018 Shanghai Masters; the second time he slipped on the grass at Queens Club, London. He attempted to return to tennis at both the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and the US Open, but withdrew from both tournaments before accepting a wildcard into the Argentina Open, where he lost to Delbonis.

Juan Martin del Potros running forehand was one of the most explosive shots in tennis. (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

The biggest moment of Del Potro's career came in 2009, when he defeated Roger Federer for the first time in seven tries to win the US Open. When he came back from a set and a break down, he inflicted the Swiss' first defeat at the tournament in six years.

Del Potro has only reached one more Grand Slam final (the 2018 US Open), despite reaching No. 3 in the world, and is usually seen as one of several male players who made up the Big Three of Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in the late 2000s and 2010s.

This doesn't quite tell his story. His 20-51 record against those three and Andy Murray remains one of the best players to have played against all four in his career. He is the only non-European man to win a major since the 2004 French Open (Gaston Gaudio, also an Argentinian); the 2009 US Open marks the only time all three Big Three reached the semifinals of a major without any of them ultimately winning.

He reached the 2018 US Open final, where he lost to Djokovic, after multiple wrist surgeries forced him to convert his two-handed backhand into a half-baked push. Instead, he developed a mastery of slice midway through his career, allowing him to claim wins over all three of the Big Three after his injuries.

Del Potro's wayward forehand, with its exaggeratedly high, elongated return, allowed him to crush the groundstroke with barely any spin but with incredible precision, the thunderous power obscuring the preternatural coordination required to hit that kind of shot again and again .

In addition to the 2018 US Open final, he successfully returned from his wrist injuries to record a memorable victory over Djokovic in the first round of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, and reached the semi-finals of the French Open in 2018. At the 2012 Olympics, he played one of the major semi-finals in tennis history against Federer, losing 19-17 in a decisive third set that lasted two hours and 43 minutes.

Looking ahead to his match with Djokovic, del Potro said it is a farewell event.

“If I could at least have a little rest in my leg for two or three hours, to enjoy something for the last time on a tennis court, that would be wonderful,” he said.

(Top photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)