Every celebration should end with an explosive climax... and Tandil was the biggest, most close to heart venue to celebrate the victory of Juan Martin del Potro.The newly-crowned US Open champion was greeted by 40,000 people in his hometown of Tandil yesterday!
The US Open champ was paraded through the streets on a fire engine and gave a speech thanking his fans for their support.
Here are some interesting facts about del Potro:
- He switched to tennis after growing up playing football, rugby union and basketball.
- He always wanted to play against others three or four years older—and he’d win.
- The 6-feet-6 Del Potro is known at home as the “Tower of Tandil.”
- Growing up, his friends called him “Midget” and described his long, thin legs as “little sticks.”
- The president of the club where he used to play tennis said del Potro is a great goalscorer in football. The president said, if del Potro had stayed with soccer, he’d be a Maradona or Pele."
- His father Daniel is a veterinarian and mother Patricia a literature teacher.
- He gave his 18-year-old sister Julieta a luxury car he won last year in a tournament in Stuttgart, Germany.
