ATP: Juan Martin del Potro starts the preparation with his fans

Juan Martin del Potro has set himself another step forward for 2018: last season the Argentinean finished just outside the top ten.

For Juan Martin del Potro, the preparation for the 2018 tennis year began after his retirement at the last ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Paris-Bércy, when the Argentinean declared that he would not be available as a replacement for the grand finale in London. Instead, del Potro simply moved his holidays a few days forward, the start into the new tennis year with his start in Auckland will finally take place much earlier than last season – the US Open Champion of 2009 gave himself the trip to New Zealand and Australia, after a break after the fantastic performance at the Davis Cup finale in Zagreb.

At the moment Juan Martin del Potro is in eleventh place in the world rankings, the highlight of the season was certainly at the US Open: In New York City, del Potro first defeated Dominic Thiem after two sets behind, and then Roger Federer in the quarter-finals. Against whom he had celebrated his biggest career triumph on the spot.

Sebastian Prieto was jointly responsible for the late upswing, who joined del Potro as coach shortly before the start of the last Grand Slam tournament of the year. Prieto had been involved with the player Juan Martin del Potro for several years, but personally only met him in the second half of the 2017 tennis season.

“I consider Juan Martin to be a very penitent person, very relaxed in his daily work, but still very focused and strict with himself in his attitude,” Prieto explained to the TenisZone portal:”He is a top player when it comes to the way he works and his mentality.

Del Potro himself officially began his preparations last Saturday, in front of a crowd of more than 1,000 fans who he had invited to his hometown of Tandil via Twitter. The entrance to this training session was of course free of charge, del Potro only asked his supporters to bring non-verbal food. These were donated to a charitable institution in Tandil.

“The idea was to give Tandil back a little bit of the love and support I have received over the years to help the Banco di Alimentos Foundation. It was a great day and everyone involved had a lot of fun,”Del Potro said after the event.

His coach Prieto is already looking ahead to 2018,”I think the main goal for Juan Martin will be to stay healthy throughout the year and play at the highest level. Preparation is important because it provides a good basis for the entire season.”