Former Grand Slam champion Juan Martin del Potro will have additional surgery to help repair a knee injury that has kept him off the ATP Tour since last June.
In a statement released on Sunday, the Argentine’s team said he will undergo surgery on Monday, Jan. 27 in Miami to aid his recovery from a fractured kneecap.
“Most doctors have come to the conclusion that a new intervention in the right knee of [Juan Martin del Potro] is necessary,” the statement said.
“We hope that this is the definitive solution to eliminate the pain that not only has prevented Delpo from playing tennis, but also making it difficult for him to perform daily activities.”
del Potro first fractured his right knee at the 2018 Masters 1000 event in Shanghai, which ended his season and forced him to miss the first four months of the 2019 season.
He then re-injured the kneecap in June at the Queen’s Club in his first-round match against Canada’s Denis Shapovalov, although he did go on to win the match.
del Potro underwent surgery after the Queen’s Club tournament, but while “the recovery progressed, the pain persisted throughout,” according to Sunday’s statement.
No timeline has been given for his recovery and/or return to the tour, if he is able to return at all.
Initially, the Argentine, who won the U.S. Open in 2009, hoped to return for October’s indoor hardcourt swing in Europe, but he was forced to withdraw due to continued pain.
del Potro, once considered the next big star on the ATP Tour, has struggled with injuries throughout his career since his Grand Slam breakthrough over a decade ago. He has had multiple surgeries on his wrists that have forced him to miss considerable amounts of time.
When healthy, he has regularly shown himself to be one of the tour’s best and one of the biggest threats to the “Big Three” of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.
He has finished in the top ten five times in his career, including three times at No. 5. In 2018 he won his first Masters 1000 title in Indian Wells, beating Federer in the final, before reaching his second Grand Slam final at the U.S. Open that September. He reached a career-high ranking of No. 3 that season.
Due to knee injuries, though, he has only played seven events since reaching the U.S. Open final in September 2018.
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