- Zverev, Monfils, and to close out the week of Mextenis Talks! in Acapulco, former Argentine tennis player Juan Martin del Potro couldn’t miss out on the in-depth discussion
Acapulco, February 27, 2026. “I’m still trying to figure out what I’m passionate about and what I like.” Four years after retiring from professional tennis, Juan Martin del Potro returned to Acapulco as ambassador for the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presented by HSBC and, of course, he couldn’t miss Mextenis Talks! to reveal everything about his life after high performance.
“What I find most difficult are the big finals against the Big Three. We spend our whole lives preparing for those moments. But I don’t miss training eight hours a day, I don’t miss watching what I eat, and I don’t miss traveling. That’s emotional and mental peace,” he revealed in the company of fellow former tennis player Nicolas Pereira and host Caro Guillén.
He recalled his journey, his Olympic silver medal in Rio 2016, the Davis Cup, his friends on the circuit and his rivals, shared his passion for Boca Juniors, but also confessed everything about the watershed moment that was his forced retirement: “After my tenth knee surgery, I knew I couldn’t go on. It was very painful to go through it day after day, but that opened up the opportunity to say goodbye with Djokovic in Argentina.”
“It’s not easy to put an end to a career of so many years, with many injuries and other beautiful things. It’s all part of the career. Suddenly you wake up and you no longer have to watch what you eat, there’s no coach, no physio. That process is hard, it takes a lot of adjustment. The life of a tennis player is very fortunate; we live in a bubble of wonderful things, and it ends overnight, and you have to find new motivations,” he added.
Regarding his impressions of Acapulco, on his return after eight years to the AMT, he says, “It’s one of the most beautiful tournaments on the circuit, one of the most enjoyable, and that’s why playing here was always a priority. Acapulco has to be a priority for all tennis players. These things, playing a few meters from the beach, night matches, parties, the players being able to be part of that, it’s wonderful.”
At the end, he answered questions from the audience. What did you say to yourself during difficult moments in matches? “Very good question,” he said to the boy. “When I was very nervous, I tried to remember that hard training and how well I had prepared myself to face that moment. It’s also good to fall back on the routine you always do before a point, get comfortable, the towel, whatever distracts you.”
Regarding his preference among today’s generation of tennis players, “the best right now is Carlitos Alcaraz, and apart from Nole, he’s the one I like the most.”
