Big men rising as Juan Martin del Potro tops Kevin Anderson in race to No8 with Acapulco title

Neither world No8 Kevin Anderson nor world No9 Juan Martin del Potro is a stranger to adversity.

Both big men—the former just over 2m tall, the latter just under—have had their share of injury, and more than most.

Anderson, a late bloomer who finished his college career before turning pro, edged his way into the top 50 and to his first title in 2011, was a fixture in the 20s by early 2013, cracked the top 20 in 2014, and had made a clutch of finals, eight of them, by the time he won his next trophy in Winston Salem in 2015.

But he would not win another until last month, in the inaugural playing of the New York Open, and a quick glance at his bio explains why.

During 2016 and 2017, he had injuries to his knee, shoulder, groin, hip and thigh, and resorted to ankle surgery in 2016. Last season alone was littered with problems—hip, leg, elbow—and a consequent slip to No80, his lowest position since 2010.

All the more reason to applaud the 31-year-old South African who was back in the top 20 by the end of last year having reached his first Major final at the US Open. And this year, he broke into the top 10 for the first time after making the final in Pune and winning in New York.

Now he was into his third final of the year in Acapulco and chasing another career-high, joint seventh, if he should win his first ATP500 title.

But there was one very large obstacle to that ambition. Anderson had lost all six of his previous meetings with del Potro.

Now age 29, the mighty Argentine had accumulated a string of ‘youngest player’ accolades as he burst onto the tour with four titles in 2008, all before his 20th birthday.
Indeed he made an astonishing back-to-back run from the clay of Stuttgart in July, ranked 65, to the hard courts of Washington, and then on to the quarters of the US Open, where it took Andy Murray and four hours to stop him. By the end of the year, he had qualified for the World Tour Finals [then the Masters Cup].

He famously brought an end to Roger Federer’s run of five straight US Open titles in 2009, making him the only man not among the so-called ‘big four’ from early 2005 to the end of 2013 to win a Major. He remains one of that very select group of men now joined by Stan Wawrinka and Marin Cilic.

But as he turned 21, and headed towards the No4 ranking, del Potro faced injury problems. His ATP bio sweeps across the story: right wrist surgery in 2010, left wrist surgery in 2014 and twice in 2015, Comeback Player of the Year in 2011 and 2016, ended 2015 outside the top 100 for the third time in six years…

Yet in 2016, he won silver in the Rio Olympics and led his country to its first Davis Cup victory—forcing him to begin the 2017 season late from exhaustion. Gradually he began to reassert himself among the elite, notably with a gutsy run to the semis at the US Open, another run via four three-setters to the semis in Shanghai, the title in Stockholm, and a runner-up finish in Basel, having won the first-set tie-breaker against Federer.

And so to 2018, and del Potro broke back into the top 10 for the first time since August 2014 with a final run at his first event, Auckland. And a win in Acapulco would be as significant for the Argentine as for Anderson, his biggest title since winning the ATP500 in Basel in 2013.

And if Anderson’s form was good, del Potro’s in Acapulco was outstanding: He beat David Ferrer in three sets, then world No6 Dominic Thiem and No5 Alexander Zverev, both in straight sets. And he capped it off with a straight-sets dominance of Anderson, 6-4, 6-4, in a heavyweight final that required just one break in each set.

He gave his opponent a scare at the start of the second set, when Anderson fell trying to retrieve a lob. For del Potro had shown variety and tactical smarts all week, slicing his backhand to devastating effect, throwing in drops, even coming to the net himself.

Add in 12 aces in that final, plus of course his infamous forehand, and del Potro has looked in fine shape and good form, and will surely now head to Indian Wells as one of the favourites.

Nor will it do him any harm at all to be the new world No8 in a draw of 32 seeds, and with his biggest title in well over four years in his pocket.

He said: “It’s a very special tournament to me. I beat three top-10 guys in the same tournament, which is very important for myself… [Kevin] is a very dangerous guy. His serves are so strong, but I got lucky in the important moments of my return games, and I broke just twice and that was the key of the match.”

He went on: “I’m so glad to win my 21st title playing in Acapulco.”

Yes, he now has 21 titles, but as yet not a single Masters. March may change all that.