Interview Insights – Juan Martin Del Potro at US Open 2009
Juan Martin Del Potro reached his dream – he finally won the US Open this year by beating Roger Federer in five tough sets.
The parts of interviews below are from his 6 interviews that he gave at the US Open 2009 and I’ve chosen the parts that show how Juan Martin Del Potro mentally approached the US Open and how he mentally adjusted during the tournament.
Juan Martin Del Potro at the US Open 2009 / Photo by: Philip Hall/usopen.org
Interview after beating Jurgen Melzer 7-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the second round:
Q. And in the hardcourt summer season, you have had great success. What do you attribute that to?
JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO: Well, I like the surface, for sure. I beat Roddick, González, and they are very good players on this kind of surface. But if I want to be a good player in the future and to beat Murray, Federer, and Djokovic on this surface, I will try.
Juan Martin is well aware of who he has beaten – which gives him a lot of confidence but at the same time he knows he still needs to improve. That’s the right and balanced way of looking at yourself.
If he would base his self-confidence ONLY on one aspect, he would be either:
- over-confident (I beat great players. No need to work that hard, I am a champion already.)
- not confident (I haven’t beaten Murray or Federer on hard courts therefore I am a poor player.)
The key then is to be aware of good you are and still know that there is room for improvement.
Q. Do you feel you have the game to do that now?
JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO: Well, it’s very tough. Maybe you have the game, but I need the experience. I need time to be like them and to feel many, many times the semifinals in Grand Slam, the finals in Grand Slam, the crown, everything.
Again, Del Potro is very wise for his youth. Yes, he has the game – his SHOTS are excellent and he can win. But there are some many small nuances at the top that he knows he still needs to play many matches to EXPERIENCE different situations and find ways to solve them.
Interview after beating Daniel Koellerer 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the third round:
Q. The way that guy was on the court, was that distracting at all?
JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO: Yeah, of course. Is too difficult play against Koellerer, because you never know what he gonna do after the point. But I was so focus with my game, I always try to do my play. Sometimes I was nervous and I feel the pression, but after I did a good job.
Juan Martin admits that he felt the pressure and doesn’t try to pretend that he is so mentally tough that he doesn’t feel pressure. ALL players feel pressure at some point in the match.
Mental toughness means that DESPITE this pressure you still fight, attempt tactically correct shots and don’t succumb to what the fear is telling you.
Interview after beating Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 in the fourth round:
Q. You talked about how great it would be to get to the semis and how great it would be to get to the final. You didn’t use the word how great it would be to win. What was your mindset going into this tournament with respect to am I finally going to win a Grand Slam this time?
JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO: I don’t think about this. I just think about quarters, and Cilic now. But for sure my dream is to win a Grand Slam, and this Grand Slam especially. But, you know, maybe tonight or tomorrow night I will wake up thinking in Cilic. I can’t explain you how can I feel in the final, because I need to win two more matches.
Del Potro is staying in the NOW and is not »floating« in his mind into the future. If his focus would be on the final, then a part of the focus would be missing in the quarters. And that probably wouldn’t be enough.
So it’s good to have a long term dream and see yourself winning a tournament but once you play it, you need to take it match by match and point by point. Focus on what is going on NOW.
Interview after beating Marin Cilic 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 in the quarter finals:
Q. What do you need to improve do you think most – for the semis? It’s obviously going to be a tough match either way?
JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO: Yeah, of course. I cannot start the match like today. I was thinking other things, and the weather was bad. But it is for both player, you know. I need to be focus in the beginning of the match until the last point and do my game, and that’s it.
Del Potro is immediately aware of why he lost the first set – he wasn’t in the now. But he obviously analyzed his thoughts when the set ended, realized that he wasn’t focusing on the task at hand and then took control of the match.
It’s almost impossible to play a mentally perfect match. But if you do catch yourself doing something »wrong« – like thinking about the future or not adjusting your activation level – then don’t scold yourself and make things even worse with negative self-talk.
Just correct what needs to be corrected! Refocus, control your activation level, etc. Learn from your mistake and move on. If the match is not over, you always have a chance of turning it around in your favor.
Interview after beating Rafael Nadal 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 in the semi finals:
Q. Rafa said that on a number of occasions you seemed to be playing with greater confidence than he’s ever seen you play with before. Do you feel right now you’re as confident a player as you’ve ever been?
JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO: Yes, I think so. I played a great match. I was so focused with my serve, with every breakpoints, playing serve, you know, trying to put the ball into the court and trying to be aggressive.
I saw Rafa in the baseline, but too far away on the baseline. That’s important for me to come to the net and to do a short point.
Juan Martin says two interesting things here;
a) He felt confident based on his results and his level of play. That’s why he can be calm and focused on what he needs to play.
b) His strategy was very simple – put the ball in the court (which means don’t aim for the lines) and stay aggressive (because just putting the ball in the court is not enough).
It’s the combination of hitting aggressive shots but aiming not too close to the lines that makes it very hard to play Del Potro. He plays very fast, flat and low and even if his shots are not landing in the corner, they’re still very hard to handle.
Juan Martin is aware of that and is therefore focused on this winning strategy. It doesn’t have to be complicated or complex at all. In fact, the more complex the strategy, the more time you’ll need to decide what to play and the higher the chances of missing will be.
Interview after beating Roger Federer 3-6, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-2 in the final:
Q. I want to know where in the match you felt that you could do this? Federer is known for just pulling out the aces and going to the fifth set and making it. Somehow just having the mental stamina to go through. When did you feel that, wow, I think I got this, I can actually do this?
JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO: Well, when I won the second set, I think if I continuing playing same way, maybe I have chance to win. But after, when I lost the third set, going to break up, I start to think bad things, you know. It was so difficult to keep trying to keep fighting. But one more time the crowd and the fans helped me a lot to fight until last point. I think I have to say thank you to everyone for that.
Del Potro explains one of the most common mental battles you have to fight: against YOURSELF. You have to fight a battle in your mind against your negative thoughts that keep trying to convince you that you will lose and that it’s not worth fighting anymore.
Del Potro says that the crowd helped him keep positive and that they gave him the extra mental strength to fight. But it’s important to realize that this is what makes tennis so difficult and that this is the KEY to winning in tennis – it’s the battle with your positive thoughts and hope against the negative thoughts and despair.
Hang in there and NEVER give in to the negative part of you.
My greatest satisfaction if I happened to lose the match was that I never lost the battle with my negative thoughts. I was the winner of my internal battle. It was not my negative self that caused the defeat but it was actually my oponent who was really better on that day.
Fight and win the internal battle with your negative self and you’ll see that no loss can deeply hurt you.
As you can see, in order to be a champion, you need to think in the right way and adjust your focus during matches and the tournament and keep a positive, non-judgmental approach to yourself.
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September 20th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
tom you are smart , intelligent and magnificient , i am so lucky to receive your advices , thank for the mental help part , it does not only pretain to tennis only but also to whole life twists and turns , i cannot thank u enough
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:58 am
Interesting to read this. What do you think of Michael Jordan or champions in other sports. It seems that there is a more physical battle with the other player. Is tennis different in this way? Maybe it is more mental because you actually are never as close to your opponent. Just wondering if you think the non-judgmental objective approach works as well in other sports.
September 23rd, 2009 at 2:07 am
Hi Arturo,
I think in physical sports the players find it easy to release some of the pressure because they make contact with each other. This tension and pressure therefore is released.
In tennis, you never make contact with the opponent and this pressure may even build up more and more. It needs to be released through strokes and breathing.
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:21 pm
As usual this post has some great analysis and advice. I am not sure if you have enough time to do one of your in-depth analyses of the US Open fiinals but I would be interested to know what you thought of the strategies of Del Potro and Federer in the match, and why you think Federer broke down in the end, in a similar way as in the fifth set of the Australian vs Nadal. Was it simply a case of Federer’s serving being poor, or did Del Potro out-think him?
Anyway, keep up the great work!
September 24th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
I am not Tomaz but it seems that Federer kind of ran out of gas or gave up. He just did not fight until the end. Federer is a great champion who showed this summer that he could fight until the end and win a final. At the US Open that fight was not there.