Del Potro is the player that could change the complexion of the men's tour.
Juan Martin Del Potro, more than Robin Soderling, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, or Novak Djokovic, is the player on tour that could challenge Rafael Nadal for Slams.
At present Del Potro is ranked just 34th on tour as he continues to slide down the rankings due to his wrist injury but his true ability, independent of his ranking, remains top 5, when healthy. Del Potro will not be at the ATP World Tour championships in the fall and that means the 800 ranking points he earned at that event last season will go undefended. Unless he starts playing effective tennis soon, he could be out of the top 100 before season's end.
However Del Potro, who turns 22 next week, remains an immense talent and his absence from the 2010 US Open was noticeable. When Andy Murray fell in the third round, the talent in Nadal's half of the draw really dipped and there was no one before the final that was a serious threat to Nadal winning the title.
Nadal vs Mikhail Youhzny was nothing compared to Federer vs Djokovic but had Nadal's semifinal been Nadal vs Del Potro, then the whole tennis world may have tuned in.
Del Potro's serve and his devastating groundstrokes are both so effective for winning cheap points that the 6'6" Argentinian could not be stopped by Federer himself in the 2009 US Open final.
The question with Del Potro is not whether or not he can beat the best players but whether or not he will be healthy for the 2011 season. The fact that he has been absent for such a long, long time is very dismaying as his last match was a 4th round loss to Marin Cilic, way back in the Australian Open earlier this year.
Del Potro is a giant for a tennis player standing at 6'6" and when the tall players start suffering injuries it is a really bad sign - more so than the shorter, stockier players with lower centres of gravity.
Rumors are that Del Potro will back for ATP Vienna (October 25th) and if he is healthy then he is, without doubt, a credible threat to win any ATP tournament or any Grand Slam, including Nadal's French Open. But keep in mind however that Del Potro was, back in July, reportedly going to be in the 2010 US Open so who really knows when he'll be back in competition for sure.
Here are his odds for the 2011 Grand Slam tournaments:
Those are all good prices if Del Potro is in fact healthy as, even as an unseeded player, he could win any event. You may want to make a conservative opening bet on each Slam price and save a bigger bet if Del Potro looks great when he comes back.
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