When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. This was the case with Juan Martin Del Potro who was playing his maiden quarterfinal of Wimbledon on Wednesday against the fourth seed David Ferrer when he suffered a nasty fall during the first game of the opening set.
Argentine eight seed was in tears after his left-knee bent awkwardly but that didn’t stop him from giving a tough fight to the Spaniard and later won the match in straight sets. Del Potro was quoted by Indian Express saying, "I think I was close to retiring. But to be honest, I didn't want to retire in my first Wimbledon quarterfinal. And that's the reason that I continued to play. The doctors gave me good anti-inflammatories. I broke his serve early and that gave me confidence to take advantage in the beginning of the match."
His struggle paid off well as after two hours and 16 minutes he reached his first Wimbledon semi-final by beating Ferrer 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (7/5).
"I was worried because the doctor said they can't do any more with my knee," Del Potro said.
Argentine brushed the pain aside and focused on playing his very best tennis. He was quoted by Hindustan Times saying, "I had the tape, a very tight tape, and that helped me to move a little bit, but nothing more. It was really painful in the beginning of the match and many things came to my mind, many bad things. But I tried to be positive and played unbelievable tennis. I was lucky because I did everything good."
He will now take on the World Number one Novak Djokovic in the semi-final on Friday and for that he knows that he needs to be fully fit. "I will need to be 110 percent against him. He's the number one player. He's a former champion. It's going to be a more difficult match for me," Del Potro said.
"I will see tomorrow how I am. I think the bad pain is coming now after the shower, after the massage. But the doctors are taking care of me. I'm safe. I think I will feel the same as after my third round match. I need to be strong to manage the pains."
Del Potro added: "I need to practice tomorrow for sure, but I'm positive and I'm not thinking too much in my knee. I'm not going to put my body at risk. The doctors tell me with this tape and taking some anti-inflammatories you can play. If they say something different, I will think about it. But I have experience about injuries. I have my knee problem, but always the opponent can have different injuries.
Last year Del Potro got better of Novak Djokovic in the semis of London Olypmics to win the bronze for his country and would be looking to do the same if he gets the nod from the doctors on Friday morning.
He concluded by saying, "If I'm okay, if I do everything good to be ready for my next match. I will be excited to play against him. I remember the match during the Olympic last year on the same surface."