Del Potro can't even 'jog or sprint' currently as race against time for US Open farewell begins

Juan Martin Del Potro received an invitation to play at the 2023 US Open championship and properly say goodbye on the courts of the only grand slam he ever won.

The Argentine is expected to attempt that though it seems like a mammoth task right now. Speaking to Punto De Break, his fitness coach spoke about how things are going as Del Potro faced a race against time in his bid to play at the US Open. His last match was played in 2022 when he briefly said goodbye to the sport in his hometown of Buenos Aires.

The coach said:

“With Juan Martin it is a nice challenge, he contacted me a few months ago and in Miami everything materialised. We met, we saw the objectives that he had and the truth is that I saw him very excited. He has a chronic injury, he was operated several times, so we started with all the enthusiasm in the world, with a specific rehabilitation process and, at the same time, physical work. It's somewhat frustrating, the problem is that he hasn't been able to play for many years, not even train as he wanted, that frustrates and demotivates you."

The coach added:

“Look, before he couldn't go down 30 degrees and now he can go down 40 degrees, we achieved this thanks to specific exercises with the support of his right leg.”

And more:

“He can't jog, for example, right now I can't do a sprint. But the important thing is to look for different mechanisms, first with the bicycle, the second week we already started to do the elliptical, in the plan it consists of Juan Martin seeing that little by little he is advancing.”