The 2009 US Open winner, who hasn't played on the tour for almost three years due to a knee injury, tearfully told a press conference in the Argentine capital on Saturday, that his knee was giving him "a nightmare".

"It's a goodbye more than a return. I've been trying treatments for years, seeing doctors, and I couldn't imagine retiring without playing. There's no no better tournament than Buenos Aires to do it. After this week, I will consider the future," said the 33-year-old former world No.3.

Nicknamed the Tower of Tandil, Del Potro (1.98m) won the 2009 US Open by beating Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals, then Roger Federer in the final, in five sets, becoming the first Argentinian since Guillermo Vilas, in 1977, to win a Grand Slam tournament.

The only one of his career.

'Delpo' also helped give Argentina their first Davis Cup in 2016, winning a decisive point, that of the equalizer at 2-2 on Sunday, against Croatian Marin Cilic.

Then Federico Delbonis scored the third point, that of a historic victory.

The best Argentine player of the last 20 years has also won two hard-fought Olympic medals.

Bronze at London-2012, beating Novak Djokovic, then silver at Río-2016, after beating Djokovic and Nadal but yielding in the final against Andy Murray.

Wrists and knees, the weak links

He is the age of miracles, 33, but has not played a single official match since the Queens tournament in June 2019, long before the global coronavirus pandemic.

On the English turf, he injured his knee again, eight months after a fractured patella in his right knee during the Shanghai Masters 1000.

Juan Martin del Potro at Madison Square Garden in New York on March 6, 2017 ELSA GETTY/Getty/Archives

Since then, the Argentinian has undergone four more knee operations, the last in 2021, and is now ranked 757th in the world.

Tuesday, he will resume the thread of his career, against Delbonis (41st in the world. But for how long?

"To be honest, I have to say that I don't come for a miraculous comeback like on other occasions. I know the limits of my body," he said.

In recent weeks, "Delpo" had expressed on social networks his desire to return to play in Buenos Aires, where he had lined up only once in 2006. And possibly to continue the following week at the ATP 500 of Rio (February 14-20).

But nothing is less certain.

In 2018, Del Potro was a semi-finalist at Roland-Garros, then a finalist at the US Open three months later, climbing to the world podium for the first time between these two big results.

Since his debut on the ATP Tour, Del Potro has won more titles (22) than he has undergone operations, fortunately for him, but he has often been betrayed by his large body (1.98 m) which martyrs, in priority, his wrists and his knees.

Argentina's Juan Martin Del Potro, speaking to the press in Buenos Aires, February 5, 2022 - TELAM/AFP

At the big injury ball, the wrists first set the tone.

The right first, operated in the spring of 2010, then the left especially, operated three times in fifteen months, between March 2014 and June 2015. Until it plummeted beyond the 1000th place in the world at the start of 2016.

The knees took over, with in particular this fractured kneecap in October 2018 in Shanghai, then the umpteenth stoppage, perhaps definitive, at Queens 2019, eight months later.

© 2022 AFP