"That last moment, putting the headband there, was so symbolic" - Prakash Amritraj on Juan Martin del Potro's emotional gesture after Argentina Open loss
Juan Martin del Potro's emotional first-round encounter at the 2022 Argentina Open left most fans in the stands teary-eyed. Playing his first match in nearly three years and possibly the last of his career, del Potro went down in straight sets to countryman Federico Delbonis.
The former World No. 3, who is set to bid farewell to tennis, was visibly emotional at the end of the match and went to the stands to hug his mother. He also returned to the court to place his headband on the net.
Speaking about the Argentine's touching gesture, Tennis Channel's Prakash Amritraj said it felt like del Potro's way of saying he had given the sport "everything".
"That last moment, there, putting the headband, was so symbolic," Amritraj said. "He's basically saying, I've given you everything, my game, I've given you my everything. Yeah, and this is it right here."
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Amritraj, for his part, feels del Potro has a lot more to offer in terms of his tennis. The 38-year-old said the Argentine would have won a lot more titles had it not been for frequent injuries.
"Looking back on his career, I think about a lot of the players that left it all out there and you know, maybe they didn't get the Wimbledon title," Amritraj said. "Maybe they didn't get that Grand Slam, but they were able to leave it all out there."
"Juan Martin, on the other hand, there was so much more he had left to give," he continued. "And I think that's that's what's gonna be in all of our minds because look, he won, as much as you could possibly win playing what 30% of the career that he should have played."
"All of us tennis fans that love this game so much, we wanted to see a lot more" - Paul Annacone on Juan Martin del Potro
Former tennis player Paul Annacone echoed Amritraj's sentiment, saying the surgeries and subsequent rehabilitation proved too much to handle for del Potro in the end.
The American added that tennis fans across the globe wanted to see "a lot more" of the the former US Open winner.
"This was it right here, at the end of the match, all the emotions come into the surface," Annacone said. "After everything he's been through over all these years, I mean, you just want the players to be able to celebrate that they exhausted all their resources, seeing how good they could be."
"And for all of us tennis fans that love this game so much. We wanted to see a lot more of that man," he continued. "I mean, first first of all, he's a great player. Second of all, he does it with humility in class and so much grace, and to be robbed of the ability to just try to do that so, often all the surgeries, all the times he was having to rehab it just became too much."
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Although there has been no official confirmation of del Potro's retirement, it does appear as though the Argentine has played his last match.
Also Check Out: Argentina Open 2022 Results