A Tribute to Juan Martin Del Potro
In honour of a fantastic career full of electrifying wins, I've compiled the best stats from Juan Martin Del Potro's career.
Earlier this week, Juan Martin Del Potro played (probably) the last match of his outstanding career. He lost to his good friend Federico Delbonis at the Argentina Open - exactly how he wanted to go out, playing tennis in front of a home crowd.
But it was all over so quickly.
From winning the US Open in 2009 to winning Indian Wells in 2018 and peaking at #3 in the world, the man’s career has spanned the best part of 17 years. Having last played a match in 2019, here he was three years later reduced to winning only four games in the first-round of a 250.
There could have been no other way of saying farewell to a man well and truly defeated by a debilitating knee injury but it all just felt so disappointingly final and rushed.
I want to pay Delpo an appropriate tribute that isn’t as fleeting as his final moments on-court, the only way I know how…
By giving you all the stats I can on the Tower of Tandil’s unparalleled career!
Winning Against Everyone
The first thing I’d like to acknowledge - if you didn’t already know, Juan Martin Del Potro won a lot of matches.
He may have been off the tour frequently citing just about every injury in the book…
… but when Delpo was on the tour, he was a machine.
Del Potro career record: 439-174 = 71.6% win-rate.
Sounds alright? About five wins for every two losses?
Well, there are only four active players with a higher win percentage - you know who three of them are and Andy Murray is the fourth at 76.2%. Delpo has won a higher percentage of matches in his career than anyone else on tour at the moment including Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas.
If we look further back, this percentage trumps a few of the best in the game including a slew of former world #1s:
Lleyton Hewitt 🇦🇺
Stan Smith 🇺🇸
John Newcombe 🇦🇺
Thomas Muster 🇦🇹
Jim Courier 🇺🇸
Yevgeny Kafelnikov 🇷🇺
Marcelo Rios 🇨🇱
Pat Rafter 🇦🇺
It didn’t matter where it was, Delpo could find a way to win. He ranks among the top-seven of all active players in terms of winning percentage on hard-courts, clay and grass - the raw power of his game was felt universally, certainly making surfaces less of an issue for him than others, but it’s still testament to the big man’s talent that he was able to adapt to the conditions regardless of where he was playing.
I mean, he won 22 titles - he must have done a lot of winning!
… ah, I hear the feeble plight of the one Delpo hater on Earth (Judy Murray maybe?). All those titles, all those wins - they all could have been racked up playing lower-ranked players in 250s and 500s…
Winning Against The Best
That argument doesn’t hold up I’m afraid!
Delpo could step it up against the best in the business time and time again - his record of 10 wins against world #1s is the most for any player that hasn’t achieved the ranking themselves.
10 for Juan Martin Del Potro
7 for Michael Chang and Richard Krajicek
6 for Roscoe Tanner
5 for Tom Okker, Magnus Larsson, Goran Ivanisevic, Stan Wawrinka, Dominic Thiem and David Ferrer
Plus, against top-10 players in general, Del Potro more than held his own - his career win-rate of 40.4% is ninth-best of all active players, besting players such as Rublev, Wawrinka, Nishikori and Raonic.
Okay, I’ll admit his record against the Big Four specifically was a little more tame - Delpo notched 20 wins which is astounding in itself but lost 52 matches in the process (equivalent to a 27% win-rate) - plenty of wins to write home about but far from the best win-percentage of any player on tour against these four beasts (e.g. Thiem at 50%, Zverev at 40%, Medvedev at 31% etc.).
Amidst those legendary 20 wins however are some bizarre statistical anomalies…
Playing For Argentina vs Djokovic
The head-to-head between Djokovic and Del Potro is pretty one sided…
… however, bar his win at Indian Wells in 2013, Delpo has always beaten Djokovic playing for Argentina.
The Serb may have an 80% win-rate playing for his own country but for some reason Del Potro adorned in blue and white was a stumbling block he couldn’t hurdle.
Djokovic’s last loss at the Davis Cup in 2011 (mid-match retirement, failed to win a set).
At the 2012 Olympics, Djokovic was denied a bronze medal (in straight sets).
At the 2016 Olympics, Djokovic was sent packing in the first-round (in straight sets).
At an 81% win-rate, Delpo actually has a marginally better win-rate than Djokovic playing for his country - even in his losses he has been stunning, only ever losing once in straight sets (playing the Davis Cup against Soderling in 2007). Who could forget his insane 19-17 loss in the third set to Federer in 2012 in London or his gruelling four-set loss to Murray in 2016 in Rio?
Energised by his country, Delpo always had an extra edge over the world #1.
Beating Federer in Basel
What’s harder than defeating Roger Federer on a hard-court?
Defeating Roger Federer on a hard-court in Switzerland of course!
Since Federer’s home tournament in Basel changed to hard-courts in 2007, he has posted a 57-3 record. He lost to arguably the greatest hard-courter in the history of our sport in 2009 - fine - but the other two losses, of course, were at the hands of Juan Martin Del Potro in the 2012 and 2013 finals.
Naturally, both matches ended with fairly muted celebrations from Delpo out of respect for the home crowd.
Federer hasn’t lost in Basel since…
Ruining Murray’s Perfect Davis Cup Record
At the peak of his powers, Andy Murray was insanely difficult to beat. From winning Wimbledon a second time to clinching his only ATP Finals trophy at the end of 2016, Murray won 46 matches and lost only three.
At the Davis Cup, Andy Murray was also insanely difficult to beat but even more so at home. He has an overall record of 31-3 in singles matches and a 21-1 record playing at home.
One of his only three losses during that 2016 run and his only Davis Cup loss at home was to the man… the myth… the Delpo. Having actually witnessed it in person, it was as a close a match as can be but Delpo eked out a few more of the important points.
He would go on to defeat Marin Cilic from two sets to love down in the final, clinching Argentina’s first Davis Cup title and overcoming a run of four losses in the final for the country.
Beating Fedal at the US Open
For the last 20 years, in terms of titles won, the most dominant players at the US Open have been Federer and Nadal (nine between them).
Which players have spoilt the party most often for them?
Novak obviously (bt. Federer 2010, 2011 and 2015, bt. Nadal in 2011).
But also Del Potro! He beat Federer and Nadal enroute to the title in 2009 and also scored a win over Federer in 2017 and Nadal in 2018. That’s four US party-poopings, the same as Novak Djokovic!
This stat goes a little deeper though…
A few players have managed to beat Federer or Nadal at a Grand Slam twice.
Alex Corretja beat Federer at Roland Garros (2000, 2001).
Arnaud Clement beat Federer at the Australian Open (2000, 2001).
Gilles Muller bt. Nadal at Wimbledon (2005, 2017).
Lleyton Hewitt bt. Nadal at the Australian Open (2004, 2005).
No player besides Del Potro (and Djokovic obvs) has managed to beat Federer and Nadal at a Grand Slam twice. All of Del Potro’s wins were whilst the pair were playing close to their best too1.
An underrated achievement that deserves a ton of praise!
Winning Off The Court
I could finish this article by fleshing out the 169 positive head-to-heads of Del Potro’s career.
I could tell you other one-time US Open champions couldn’t hold a candle to the great man, Roddick, Thiem and Cilic going 4-19 in their combined head-to-heads against him (Thiem went winless in four attempts).
But I’m not going to do that (or continue doing that at least…).
Del Potro said it best in his on-court interview in Buenos Aires after his final match.
"The toughest thing to achieve is not a trophy or a ranking position, but people's love and support. I think I achieved it. Now I just want to live in peace and be able to sleep without feeling pain in my leg."
Everyone loves Del Potro…
… and last week, everyone’s hearts were broken as he stepped up to have his serve broken in what was likely the last game of his career.
Through all the physical and mental pain he endured, Del Potro was able to win plenty of matches.
But off the court, Juan Martin Del Potro well and truly won.
Hasta pronto amigo! 🇦🇷
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An elaboration in case you disagree.
2009: Federer was on a five-title streak at the US Open and Nadal would go on to win three of the next four Slams.
2017 and 2018: Federer had just won Wimbledon and would go on to win the Australian Open in 2018 whilst Nadal’s loss was sandwiched between two victories at the US Open.