Del Potro happy to put down the remote and pick up his racket
Watching tennis on television has been an all too regular way of passing time for Juan Martin del Potro and it does not get any easier for the injury-prone Argentine.
The giant from Tandil is preparing for yet another comeback in Sydney next week having spent nearly a year on the sidelines with a serious left wrist injury.
It was the right wrist that required surgery in 2010, six months after he won the U.S. Open, and fans of the 26-year-old, an there are many, believe he would have already added to his one grand slam title were it not for injuries.
Olympic bronze medallist Del Potro is just happy to be playing again, even if he is having to grimace through the pain.
"It was horrible to watch all the tournaments on TV and see how open it was in the grand slams," he said in an interview on the website of the ATP. "It's good for tennis but it was sad for me because I was ready and prepared.
"All of that is in the past for me now. I am positive now. I know I need to be calm and to be patient, to stay healthy and play as well as I can. It will be a long road to get in good shape and to get to my level."
Smouldering groundstrokes and a beefy serve are Del Potro's big weapons and the worry is, with his wrist still causing discomfort, his shots will have lost some of their power.
"(The wrist) hurts a little bit," he said. "It bothers me sometimes when I hit backhands but I am trying to hit harder because I need to hit harder if I want to play this tournament. Sometimes the pain is high, sometimes it is low.
"It's much better than (it was) three or four weeks ago and the doctor says that I can't make it worse by playing at a high level, so I am very positive for that.
"I need to do a lot of treatment every day. I do a long warmup before practice and matches, which takes a lot of time. That is my life at the moment.
"It will be a big challenge to play this tournament and see if I can start the season healthy and play for the whole year."
Former world number four Del Potro's wrist will get its first test against Ukraine's Sergiy Stakhovsky.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
