Juan Martin Del Potro fortunately has a good memory. He was very tempted to break his racquet in the quarterfinals in Sydney but very quickly realised that he just can’t afford to do it. You see Delpo only has two racquets that he can use.
The world number five has been testing new racquets and he has not settled on one as yet. As a result he has to keep using his old racquets and there are only two left. Talk about walking a tight-rope.
“I was close (to breaking it), but I can't do that yet; when I get eight or ten racquets, I will smash all of them,” said Del Potro laughing. “I will talk before with the chair umpire to don't call me a code violation or something. I have to be allowed to do that after two years maybe.”
Del Potro was trying a different racquet during the off season and was close to changing, but he is not feeling 100% with it at the moment. Wilson, his racquet endorsement, has been pushing him to change, but smartly he is not going to till things are perfectly right.
“Every player has different feelings with the racquets, but I feel like it's the most important what we have,” he said. “I mean, the racquet is our life. If I don't feel good with my racquet, my game could be changed a lot. I'm very specific with my details of the racquets. We are close. I'm very positive with Wilson, too, to change the racquets very soon.”
He suggested other players might just have a slight advantage on him because they have the cushion of travelling with eight or ten racquets so if a couple break (or get broken ;)), it is not a problem.
“If you have one to me...,” he said laughing. “I already asked Roger to give some racquets to me. He plays with Wilson, too. Maybe I can play better than him also.”
Del Potro cited Federer as an example from 2013 when the great one tried to change racquets; things tended to go awry for him and he lost confidence in his game.
“I mean, if I change the racquet during the off season, then I came here to play a Grand Slam and I don't feel 100%.; your mind is start to working in the negative position. It's not easy for the players change the racquet,” said Del Potro. “But I'm proud to have Wilson behind me, because I know they are working really hard. And I'm still exciting to find a racquet with them. I think we are closer.”
