Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro is a former world number three who could have tested the Big Three a lot more had it not been for his persistent injuries. Below is a lowdown on everything you wanted to know about Juan Martin del Potro’s racquet including its specifications and who else uses the same.
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Del Potro belongs to that rare breed of tennis players who managed to win a Grand Slam title during the Big Three reign. The Argentine did that at the 2009 US Open when he stalled the five-time defending champion Roger Federer to win the final in five sets but that might not have come as too much of a surprise to those watching closely.
After all, del Potro had become the first men’s singles player in the history of the sport to win his first four tournaments in a row in the previous year.
Earlier in his semifinal of that US Open, the sixth seeded del Potro had also crushed Rafael Nadal in straight sets to signal he was ready to take over the mantle.
Unfortunately for del Potro, that season was his peak, which also saw him make it to the quarterfinal at the Australian Open and the semifinal of the French Open. And while some might say he didn’t quite live up to that promise, the other way of looking at it is despite all his fitness issues, del Potro managed another US Open final in 2018, and three Grand Slam semifinals following that US Open title victory.
A finalist at the Indian Wells Masters in 2013, he went on to lift that title in 2018 – again his only Masters title victory – but the hard-court specialist also made the final at the Rogers Cup in 2009 and the Shanghai Masters of 2013.
At the 2012 Olympics he went on win a bronze medal for Argentina and then topped that effort with a silver at the 2016 edition of the games.
Del Potro possesses one of the strongest forehands in the sport, and together with a powerful serve, it helps generate the kind of brute force from the baseline which is difficult to get past.
The Argentine’s issue because of the injuries has been the weakness of his backhand which he has overcome by adopting a slice which slows the pace down and gives him ample time to adjust and smash winners off the forehand.
So, Which is Juan Martin del Potro’s Racquet?
Juan Martin del Potro has been with Wilson for most part of his career but has shifted paint jobs at various times. Currently he uses the Wilson ProStaff 97 with a paint job which makes it look like Burn FST 95, having switched from Wilson Hyper ProStaff 6.1 Midplus Stretch that he used early in his career.
To go with that, del Potro uses the Luxilon ALU Power and Wilson Natural Gut strings in the mains and crosses respectively.
Interestingly, del Potro used to use Wilson K-Factor 6.1 95 paint job at the beginning of his career and despite the model getting outdated he returned back to it following his return from his injury issues. It was only later in his career he was convinced to change his paint job to the more recent versions that Wilson brought out.
Get the Wilson ProStaff 97 racquet specifications below.
- Length: 27.25 in/69.25 cm
- Head Size: 97 sq.in./625.81 sq.cm
- Weight: Strung: 11.7 oz/332 g
- Tension: 58 Pounds
- Balance: 32 cm/12.6 in/7 pts HL
- Beam Width: 21.5 mm/21.5 mm/21.5 mm
- Composition: Graphite braided with aramid
- String Pattern: 16 Mains/19 Crosses
- Stiffness: 66
Watch the below video reviewing the racquet Juan Martin del Potro uses, the Wilson ProStaff 97 v13:
If you are looking to buy the Wilson ProStaff 97, you can do that by checking out our exhaustive tennis equipment online guide here: How to buy Tennis Equipment in the USA. You can look at the cost of this racquet offered by Amazon and then compare it with the other stores and according go for the best possible cost.