Juan Martin Del Potro will return for the first time since last fall when he takes the court at the Delray Beach Open next week. Del Potro, who has not played since the 2018 Shanghai Masters because of a knee injury, is the top seed at a tournament he won in 2011.
“I know I have to go slowly and my plan is to practice a lot and play a couple of tournaments to allow me to get some rhythm,” the 30-year-old explained. “I know it’s going to be difficult. It is my first competition. I am going little by little but I have the desire to return to competition and the motivation to come back. I’ve done it before.”
Del Potro has made multiple comebacks from left-wrist problems throughout his career, but it was a sudden knee issue that popped up and forced him to retire from a Shanghai third-round contest against Borna Coric. The Argentine missed the rest of that season–when he otherwise would have made an appearance at the Nitto ATP Finals–and he was also sidelined from the recent Australian summer.
Still ranked fourth in the world, Del Potro is 12-3 lifetime in Delray Beach. He triumphed in his debut eight years ago (d. Janko Tipsarevic in the final), advanced to the semifinals in 2016 and 2017, and fell to eventual champion Frances Tiafoe during second-round action last year.
The top seed will kick off his latest campaign against Yoshihito Nishioka on Tuesday night. An impressive field also includes Tiafoe, John Isner, and Nick Kyrgios.
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