by Pete Bodo
If I were asked to play a game of word association and the subject would be Juan Martin del Potro, the first word that pops into my mind might be, "methodical." The second might be "nickname."
What is it about this reticent, mellow, methodical colossus that invites others to anoint him with sweet diminutives? Count them up: Delpo. . . Enano (Elf). . . Tower of Tandil. . . and one that would be my favorite, Palito (English translation: Popsicle) were it not for a conceptual if not visual inaccuracy. For another of Palito's distinguishing characteristics is his significant presence.
Granted, it's hard to overlook a man of 6' 6", especially if he's fit and prone to wearing sleeveless t-shirts, although that look generally is more suited to overtly physical and flamboyant specimens like Rafael Nadal, who could have stepped right on stage with the Village People back in those headband-pirata-and-sleeveless-T days. Sleeveless Palito never had that kind of flair (sad to say, "flair" could be the last word to come up in our word-association game, but that can be interpreted either way). He appeared more the introverted, slump-shouldered carpenter's helper, resigned this task on a hot summer afternoon—at least until it came time to assert himself on the court and blast forehands and aces as if he were swinging not a racket but a nail gun.That's when that significant presence asserted itself, and pronto.
Del Potro's presence goes hand in hand with his methodical nature. Has he ever appeared to be in a hurry to do anything? Some men of his size are reedy (think Sam Querrey), others elastic (think John Isner). Delpo is tall, thin and, despite those slumped shoulders, surprisingly tensile. That's one of the main reasons he's the tallest man to have won a Grand Slam in the Open era.
I assign so much importance to this methodical aspect of del Potro for two reasons—one, because it's a pretty good predictor for success. All but the most mercurial of the top players tend to live by that irritating maxim, Plan your work, work your plan. In the long term, Delpo's plan was to become a top tennis player but, more important for our present purposes, his plan this year was to put himself into position to contend for titles and honors during the hard-court segment of the year, which is the time he really shines. That he's accomplished this so smoothly and, well methodically is an omen to which his main rivals had better pay attention.
And don't you just love someone who declares what he wants to do and then quietly and unceremoniously goes about getting it done? If Delpo were an American farm boy in a crumpled John Deere gimme cap and sleeveless T, the decal on the rear window of his pick-up might be the one that reads: Git R Done.
Coming into his favorite time of year, Delpo is ranked No. 19, a mere 240 ranking places up from where he began his 2011 quest, following an almost entirely wasted year because of wrist problems and surgery. The only caveat to his progress, which has already netted him two titles and a singles record of 35-9, is that he remains somewhat injury prone—he tore an abdominal muscle that forced him to pull out of Madrid, but he returned in time to make the third round at Roland Garros (l. to NovakDjokovic) and the fourth round at Wimbledon (l. to Nadal). Delpo has lost just four matches this year to men ranked outside the Top 10, two of them in the very first tournaments he played. His worst loss was to Adrian Mannarino in the third round at Queen's Club, the Wimbledon warm-up. He lost in straights, but both sets were in the grass-court crapshoot known as the tiebreaker.
Much was made of Delpo's inadequacy on grass leading up to Wimbledon, but to me his shortcomings on that surface are either illusory or rooted in inexperience. In his first round this year, he made short work of Flavio Cipolla, a crafty Italian player who imagined that a liberal use of the drop shot and low-flying slices would expose the big man's weakness on grass. There was nothing wrong with the theory; it's just that Delpo proved quicker and more capable of controlling the tempo than Cipolla had hoped. Delpo lost just eight games in three sets.
After a win over Olivier Rochus, del Potro came up against a player who's a master at making his opponents earn every point they win, Gilles Simon. It took del Potro two tiebreakers, but he won that one in straights sets as well. Then Nadal ended his run.
Can you imagine being better positioned to make a move during the hard-court season? Remember, this is the player who, at age 19 in 2008, became the first ATP pro to win his first four titles in as many tournaments. The four-tournament streak consisted of two events on clay and two on hard courts. The 23-match win streak was the longest in Open-era history by a player ranked outside the Top 10, and the second-longest (behind Nadal) by a teenager. Delpo won six of his nine career titles on hard courts, including the big one—his triumph over Roger Federer at the 2009 U.S. Open (footnote: he also mastered Nadal in the semifinals at that tournament, and remains the only player to beat Nadal and Federer at the same Grand Slam event).
Given Delpo's excellent Wimbledon, the conclusion is almost inescapable: he's back and ready to contend, and for the first time in nearly two years he'll be playing hard-court tennis in excellent shape, both physically and mentally. But nothing in tennis remains the same for anybody, not from one year to the next or even from one month to the next. I can see two potential problems for del Potro: injury and NovakDjokovic. There's nothing much to be said about the former other than noting del Potro's persistent fitness difficulties. The Djokovic aspect of the issue is a little more intriguing.
Delpo has as much to be afraid of when he meets the current No. 1 as Federer and Nadal once had when facing Delpo. Djokovic has swept all four meetings with del Potro, and by a comfortable margin—even on hard courts, where both men are at their best. Granted, the record goes back to the 2007 U.S. Open, well before Delpo experienced his overnight transformation into a star. But Djokovic wasn't the player he is today back when he took down Delpo in straights, either. A more recent meeting was in Beijing in 2008, at which time Delpo might have been a bit worn out by that breakout four-tournament run (a streak ended just weeks before Beijing at the U.S. Open, by Andy Murray). Djokovic won that Beijing battle in straight sets as well.
On clay, Djokovic handled Delpo easily in Rome in 2009, and again a few months ago in the midst of his great streak at Roland Garros. That was a third-round encounter, and the only consolation Delpo might have gotten from it is that he finally won a set against Djokovic.
So the tantalizing question looming on the hard-court horizon is: Has Djokovicversion 2.1 developed a game that even version 2.0 of del Potro might find too hot to handle? The main issue there, to my mind, is whether or not the firepower of del Potro, which is greater and put to sharper, more aggressive use than the artillery of either Nadal or Federer, can overwhelm the defense and lightning-quick transition game of Djokovic. But Delpo has his work cut out, because in many ways this match-up appears to favor Djokovic.
It promises to be another long, hot summer, which doesn't appear to bother del Potro. This is one Palito that doesn't melt in the heat.