How Juan Martín del Potro overcame the Big Three for Olympic heroics
Del Potro formed part of the generation of men’s tennis which produced three of the greatest players of all time: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic, collectively known as ‘the big three’.
Although he was never able to break into that elite club, the former world number three was one of the few able to challenge them. Take the 2009 US Open, where he contested the semi-finals alongside the trio and came out on top for his sole Grand Slam victory.
Reflecting on the margins that separated the best from the rest, he dissects, “A lot of us played well, but they had a small difference through small details. It is not just tennis; it is mentality,…