Argentina turns to emerging star

MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina: It has been a most unusual week for Argentina. Staging the Davis Cup final for the first time would have already been novel enough, but then along came Diego Maradona, the world’s most famous Argentine, who made his victorious debut as coach and technical director of the national soccer team in Scotland on Wednesday night.

Clearly the country’s focus has not been entirely on tennis, as anyone can confirm who has been treated to live television coverage of Argentina’s soccer practice sessions and cradle-to-coach rehashings of Maradona’s alternately tortured and triumphant life.

But come Friday, the nation’s misty eyes should turn to Mar del Plata and the historic sports opportunity at hand. Three of the four members of Argentina’s Davis Cup team have been this far before, with David Nalbandian, José Acasuso and Agustín Calleri all making the trip to Moscow, where they lost to Russia in the 2006 final.

Juan Martín Del Potro had not quite broken through to the highest level at that stage, but he clearly has his head in the clouds now after finishing the season as Argentina’s highest-ranked player at number nine.

There has been a price to pay, however, and the big question surrounding the biggest man in this final (Del Potro stands 1.96 meters, or 6-foot-5) is whether the adrenaline rush of playing for Argentina will be enough to overcome the accumulated fatigue and lingering jet lag of a breakthrough year, which earned him a trip to Shanghai for last week’s elite Masters Cup and also earned him a marathon, 27-hour journey back to Argentina for one last challenge.

“When I was in Europe for the final tournaments of the year, I was already dead on my feet,” he said. “I kept going because I was trying to make it into the Masters Cup, but physically and mentally I was already pushing it. Now, I’ve got one more big push to make and I’ve got to give it everything.”

At age 20, there should still be something in the “reserve tank” that his coach Franco Davín says he is now using. On Wednesday, Del Potro looked fresh and frisky enough as he slammed down big serves and chased down the left-handed shots of sparring partner Mariano Puerta, the former French Open finalist who is struggling to come back after a doping suspension.

“I really think he can handle the pressure,” said his childhood coach, Marcelo Gómez. “He certainly handled it in the semifinal against Russia. The final is different, but I think he has the mental strength to thrive.”

Against Russia, Del Potro was a court-gobbling, winner-smashing marvel, beating first Nikolay Davydenko and then Igor Andreev with surprising, straight-set ease on clay to compensate for Nalbandian’s uncharacteristic Davis Cup struggles.

But Del Potro has gone out of his way to make it clear that he remains Nalbandian’s sidekick, even if he is ranked two spots higher and towers over his stocky, sweaty compatriot.

“The number one on our team is David; he’s our reference, our guide,” Del Potro said. “I think he has saved Argentina many times from complicated situations.”

Until the Russia tie, where he lost twice, Nalbandian had never lost a Cup match in Argentina, winning 15 in a row. His combined singles and doubles record is still an impressive 24-7. But he was also a stylistic model for Del Potro and the younger Argentine set with his compact strokes and ability to thrive on all surfaces.

When Del Potro won four consecutive tournaments this summer, the first two victories came on outdoor clay, the next two on North American hard courts.

“The idea was for him to play on fast courts from a young age, because I knew that was the way modern tennis was going,” Gómez said. “To be a clay-court player is not enough. We knew he would be tall, which meant that playing on clay was going to be a challenge because he was going to lack some speed. But I knew that he could be a different kind of player and that that could make a difference.”

Gómez and Del Potro are from Tandil, a small provincial city of less than 200,000 that is only about 178 kilometers, or 110 miles, from Mar del Plata. Despite its small size and relative isolation, Tandil has become a font of world-class tennis talent That is in no small part due to Gómez, a well-respected master of the fundamentals who also worked with future Argentine professionals Mariano Zabaleta and Juan Mónaco. Guillermo Pérez-Roldán, a fine Argentine player in the 1990s, was also from Tandil.

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SOURCE:
“Argentina turns to emerging star”
TENNIS | DAVIS CUP
International Herald Tribune
November 20, 2008
By Christopher Clarey
http://www.iht.com/
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/20/sports/TENNIS.php