Potro

Juan Martín del Potro (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈxwan marˈtin del ˈpotɾo]; born 23 September 1988) is an Argentine professional tennis player.[1] Del Potro achieved a top 10 ranking by the Association of Tennis Professionals for the first time on October 6, 2008. In January 2010, he reached a career-high ranking of World No. 4. Soon after attaining this ranking, however, del Potro had to withdrawfrom most of the tournaments in 2010 due to wrist injury,[2] and his ranking plummeted.
Having started playing tennis at the age of seven,[3] del Potro won his first senior match in 2004 at the age of 15. In 2008, he became the first player in ATP history to win his first four career titles in as many tournaments.[4] He also completed the second longest winning streak in 2008, and the secondlongest by a teenager in the Open Era, behind Rafael Nadal—with his winning sequence spanning 23 matches over five tournaments.[4] Del Potro captured his maiden Grand Slam title at the 2009 US Open defeating Roger Federer in the final, and Nadal in the semifinal, becoming the first and only man ever (as of June 2011) to beat both Federer and Nadal in the same Grand Slam tournament. He became thesecond Argentine and the fifth youngest man to win the US Open title in the Open Era.[5]
Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Tennis career
2.1 2002–2005
2.2 2006
2.3 2007
2.4 2008
2.5 2009
2.6 2010
2.7 2011
3 Playing style
4 Equipment and apparel
5 Career statistics
6 References
7 External links
[edit]Early life

Juan Martín del Potro was born in Tandil, Argentina. His father, Daniel delPotro, played semi-professional rugby union in Argentina and is a veterinarian.[3][6] His mother, Patricia, is a teacher and he has a younger sister named Julieta. Del Potro speaks Spanish and knows some Italian and English.[7] Aside from tennis, he enjoys playing football and supports the Boca Juniors team in Argentina and Juventus in Italy.[7] He would often dedicate time to both sports duringhis childhood, and Argentinian-Italian international footballer Mauro Camoranesi remains a close friend of del Potro.[3]
Del Potro began playing tennis at the age of seven with coach Marcelo Gómez (who also coached Tandil-born players Juan Mónaco, Mariano Zabaleta and Máximo González).[3] Del Potro's talent was discovered by Italian ex-tennis professional Ugo Colombini, who accompanied him throughthe initial phases of his young career, and is still today his agent and close friend.[8] When questioned about his ambitions in tennis he replied, "I dream of winning a Grand Slam and the Davis Cup."[9]
[edit]Tennis career

[edit]2002–2005
As a junior in 2002, del Potro won the Orange Bowl 14s title, beating Marin Čilić en route to a 6–2, 7–6(5) victory over Pavel Tchekov in the final.[10] In2003, at the age of 14, del Potro received wild cards to three ITF Circuit events in Argentina, where he lost in straight sets in the first round of each.[11]
In May 2004, del Potro won his first senior match, at the age of 15, at the ITF Circuit event in Buenos Aires by defeating Matias Niemiz, he then went on to lose in three sets to Sebastián Decoud in the second round. His next victory cameover five months later against the Chilean Alvaro Loyola in a tournament in Antofagasta. Later that year, del Potro reached the quarter-finals of the ITF Circuit event in Campinas, Brazil; recording victories over Henrique Mello and Alessandro Camarco. Del Potro won two more matches before the end of the year and saw his world ranking rise from 1,441 in August to 1,077 in November.[12] He alsoreached the finals in the Argentina Cup and Campionati Internazionali D'Italia Junior tournaments.[13]
Del Potro reached his first final of the ITF Junior Circuit on 11 January 2005, the Copa del Cafe (Coffee Bowl) - Junior ITF Tournament in Costa Rica, which he lost to Robin Haase in three sets. He was involved in a dispute with the umpire during this match, who decided to stop the play because...