Juan Martin Del Potro

Full name is Juan Martin del Potro...Nicknames are Enano, Palito and Delpo...Began playing at age seven with coach Marcelo Gomez...Comes from same hometown (Tandil) as ATP pros Mariano Zabaleta, Juan Monaco, Diego Junquiera and Maximo Gonzalez... Father, Daniel, played semi-pro rugby in Argentina, and works as a veterinarian, and mother, Patricia, is a teacher...Has one younger sister, Julieta...Childhood idol was Pete Sampras and admires Marat Safin...Speaks Spanish and some Italian and English...Big supporter of Boca Juniors soccer team in Argentina and Juventus in Italy...

Favorite surface is hard courts...Captured Orange Bowl 14s title in 2002 and played his last junior tournament at Roland Garros in 2005, losing to Murray in QF...Also runner-up at back-to-back junior tournaments in Mexico and Costa Rica...Says if he wasn't a tennis player, he would look to pursue a career in architecture...Has a 4-1 Davis Cup singles record in three ties...After winning his first ATP title in Stuttgart in July 2008, gave his CLK Mercedes-Benz to his sister, Julieta....Fitness trainer is Martiniano Orazi and coached by former ATP pro Franco Davin (since March 2008).

2004 -- Posted a 7-8 Futures record, with the best result being a QF at Campinas, Brazil...

2005 -- Finished as youngest player in year-end Top 200...Raised his ranking by over 900 positions...Won three Futures titles and posted a 23-10 record at the Challenger level...Reached first career final at Mexican Futures in Merimbau Naucalpan (l. to Madjaovski)...In April, won back-to-back clay court Futures titles in Santiago with wins over Aguilar and Alves...

Later that month, won Buenos Aires Futures (d. Patriarca)...In July, stepped up to Challengers, and promptly reached SF on clay at Reggio Emilia (l. to Vassalo)...In third career Challenger, reached final at Campos do Jordao (d. Capdeville, Daniel, l. to Sa)...Followed with SF at Belo Horizonte (l. to Pless)...Late in year, won his first career Challenger title in Montevideo (d. Pashanski)...Won doubles title at Guayquil (w/Marin)... Finalist at Belo Horizonte (w/Gonzalez)...

2006 -- Youngest player to finish in Top 100 during year at 18 years, 2 months...Made his debut on ATP circuit and posted two ATP QF...Also won a pair of Challenger titles at Aguascalientes (d. Roitman)and Segovia (d. Verdasco in QF, Becker in F) to compile a 17-10 Challenger mark... Qualified five times into main draw of ATP level tournaments...

Made ATP debut in Vina del Mar and reached 2nd RD with win over Portas (l. to Gonzalez)...Qualified in his Grand Slam debut at Roland Garros, falling in 1st RD to former champion Ferrero in four sets...In July, reached 3rd RD in Stuttgart as a qualifier (l. to Mayer) and reached first ATP QF in Umag (l. to Wawrinka)...In Mumbai, defeated Moya but retired in next match against Delgado with illness...Finished year with 3rd RD at Tokyo (l. to Henman) and QF in Basel (l. to Gonzalez)...In doubles, won title at Aquascalientes Challenger and reached final at Biella (both w/Vassallo Arguello)...

2007 -- Finished as youngest player in Top 50 at 19 years, 2 months...Won 28 matches and opened season with his first ATP SF in Adelaide (l. to Guccione)...In March, advanced to 4th RD at AMS Miami, posting wins over Bjorkman, No. 18 Baghdatis and No. 17 Youzhny (l. to Nadal)...On grass, reached 2nd RD at Queen's (l. to Nadal), QF at Nottingham (l. to Karlovic) and 2nd RD at Wimbledon (l. to Federer)...

During summer hard court circuit, advanced to 3rd RD at AMS Cincinnati (d. Canas, l. to Moya) and at US Open (l. to Djokovic)...In October at AMS Madrid, defeated No. 9 Robredo for first Top 10 win en route to 3rd RD (l. to eventual champ Nalbandian)...Went 1-9 vs. Top 10 opponents and compiled marks of 21-19 on hard, 4-3 on grass and 1-2 on clay.

2008 -- The youngest player in the year-end Top 10 won four titles in five finals...Finished as top Argentine and South American for first time and also helped his country to Davis Cup final (l. to Spain 3-1)...Fell to Lopez in four sets, injuring his right thigh in the match, which kept him out of reverse singles...In first half of season, went 9-8 with his best results a SF in 's-Hertogenbosch (l. to Ferrer) and QF in Munich (l. to El Aynaoui)...Struggled with back problems, retiring twice...After 2nd RD exit at Wimbledon, won 37 of 45 matches, including a 23-match winning streak...

Won first ATP title in Stuttgart (d. Gasquet) and following week won in Kitzbnhel (d. Melzer), both on clay...Moved to hard courts and won back-to-back titles in Los Angeles (d. Roddick) and Washington (d. Troicki) before streak ended with QF loss at US Open (l. to Murray)...Climbed from No. 65 on July 7 to No. 13 on Sept. 8...Helped his country to its third Davis Cup final (1981, 2006) by defeating Russia's No. 5 Davydenko and then Andreev in decisive fifth rubber...Reached Tokyo final (l. to Berdych) to break into Top 10 on Oct. 6...Reached QF at AMS Madrid and SF in Basel...In debut at Tennis Masters Cup went 1-2 in round robin play...Was 27-11 on hard, 15-3 on clay and 4-2 on grass...Played fewest tie-breaks (10-8) in Top 10...Went 5-9 against Top 10 foes.

2009 

The 21-year-old Argentine is making his second straight appearance in the year-end championship and he is youngest player in Top 10...The top South American on ATP World Tour captured three titles, including his first Grand Slam crown, and reached his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final...In January he captured his fifth career ATP World Tour title in Auckland (d. Querrey) and followed with his second straight Grand Slam QF at Australian Open (d. Cilic, l. to Federer)....He also advanced to back-to-back QF in San Jose and Memphis...In March, he reached QF at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, falling to No. 1 and eventual champion Nadal...He then advanced to SF at Sony Ericsson in Miami where he posted three-set win over No. 1 Nadal in QF...Trailed 0-3 (two breaks) in third set before winning in a tie-break for his first win in five meetings...Afterwards, moved from No. 7 to a career-high No. 5 on Apr. 6...On clay, turned in QF effort in Rome (l. to Djokovic) and followed with SF in Madrid where he beat No. 3-ranked Murray in QF before losing to eventual champ Federer...He then reached his first Grand Slam SF at Roland Garros where he beat No. 9 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in 4th Rd. before losing to eventual champion Federer in five sets...The Argentine suffered a second round loss to Lleyton Hewitt at Wimbledon but bounced back by winning both his singles rubbers in Argentina's Davis Cup quarter-final loss to Czech Republic...In August he defended his title in Washington, D.C (d. Roddick)...The following week at Rogers Cup in Montreal he defeated World No. 2 Nadal and No. 5 Roddick to reach his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final, losing in three sets to No. 3 Murray...At US Open he  captured title with back-to-back wins over No. 3 Nadal in SF and No. 1 Federer in final in five sets (rallying from 1-2 set deficit)...He became first player to beat Nadal and Federer in a Grand Slam tournament and first Argentine to capture US Open since Vilas in 1977...Was second on ATP World Tour with 13 match wins after losing first set during season.