Juan Martin Del Potro has made a huge step in his road to recovery from yet another wrist surgery. The 2009 US Open posted an image on his facebook page suggesting he has taken back to the court.
The image captioned with the phrase “It feels great to see you again” suggests that his long road to recovery is in full flow. This is fantastic news for fans of the “Tower of Tandil”, and for tennis as a whole. Del Potro, also known as Delpo, has endured serious trouble with both wrists, having had four operations during his career, causing him to miss large chunks of the 2010, 2014, and this season.
This season, Del Potro has only played two events, the Apia International Sydney, and later the Miami Open, where he lost to Vasek Pospisil. He has not played since and underwent another operation in an attempt to fix the wrist issue this summer. His surgery and rehabilitation have been managed by Richard Berger, who has worked on Del Potro in the past.
Del Potro, who turned 27 last week, has long been considered the biggest threat to the “Big Four” of tennis for much of the past six years when the wrist has been healthy. His five-set over Roger Federer in the US Open Final of 2009 as a teenager still resonates as one of the biggest shocks. He has shown in the past that adequate recovery and careful management of the wrist still enables him to produce world-class tennis. His semi-final run at Wimbledon in 2013 saw him ease past David Ferrer in the quarter-finals, despite a leg injury. The semi-final itself is perhaps the finest match that Wimbledon has witnessed since the Wimbledon finals of 2008 and 2009. He fought World no.1 Novak Djokovic all the way in a five set defeat that is the longest Wimbledon semi-final in history.
Fans of Del Potro cannot get too excited too quickly however. Del Potro is a committed player and person, and he knows he still has a long way to go regarding rehabilitation. Given his history, he will not be pushing the wrist until there is little doubt of its strength. It is unlikely that we will see him rejoin the ATP World Tour this year. There is not even a guarantee that he will participate in the opening grand slam in Melbourne. Caution is key for the man who seems to display so little of it on the court, and he may not return with quite the panache he displayed in 2011. But if he does return, plays consistently, and without the wrist bothering him, we may see that booming serve and ferocious forehand dominate once again.
His last proper return from the wrist troubles in 2011 yielded him the title of ATP Comeback Player of the Year. Let us hope that a repeat title beckons for Del Potro in 2016.
