“this is not the life I wanted”, Juan Martin Del Potro describes his ordeal on social networks

A very sad end to his career for Juan Martín del Potro. The former Argentine tennis player, who will play an exhibition match against Novak Djokovic on December 1 at his home in Buenos Aires, explains his daily ordeal in a video published on his Instagram account. Retired since February 2022 and a defeat against Federico Delbonis in Buenos Aires, the winner of the 2008 US Open explains having undergone more than 100 infiltrations to calm his pain.

“I stayed two months in Switzerland, in a village near Basel, for my rehabilitation, but it didn’t work, he sighs. After two and a half months, I had my sixth operation. I returned to the United States, I had more than a hundred injections, infiltrations everywhere, in a hip, a leg, my back… It's daily suffering. This has been my life since my last match. » Del Potro said. The former world number 3 explains that the slightest daily action makes him suffer to the point that “he has not run since the age of 31 (he is now 36).

Forced to take around ten medications to sanitize the pain, Juan Martin del Potro says he lives “a never-ending nightmare”. While he said he would like to be able to return to the courts one day, it is difficult to imagine now if he will be able to live one day without physical suffering.