Del Potro still hasn’t ‘digested’ his retirement

Del Potro’s harsh confession

The Argentine tennis player gave a lengthy interview to “La Nacion” in which he recounts the ordeal that has plagued him for more than three years: “Today I can only walk, I can’t even run on the treadmill, I can’t climb stairs without pain, I can’t even drive for a long time without having to stop to stretch my legs because of the pain. This is my reality, it is very hard, very sad, but I keep looking for ways to improve. My new challenge is how I try to process everything, assimilate what I get and how I get up every day to live the best I can.”

The 2009 Us Open winner admitted all the suffering, including mental suffering post-retirement: “I cannot psychologically accept a life without tennis. When I talk to other athletes who are no longer active, they tell me, ‘Well, I took the last two years of my career, the last year, I prepared this way or that way.’ I’m doing that now. I was No. 3 in the world, until all of a sudden I broke my knees and here I am, with nothing.”

And woe betide that the Tandil Tower has not tried: “I recently went to Switzerland to another doctor, started a new treatment, which was recommended to me by several professional tennis players, but so far I have not had a single positive result, it is very difficult to get that feeling after each attempt, whether it is treatment or surgery. The frustration I feel when things don’t work is hard to explain. I have illusions, I have faith in every new treatment I try, but every time it fails it is a very hard blow.”