Argentina's del Potro to play in Shanghai Masters

Argentine tennis player Juan Martin del Potrohas has confirmed that the next tournaments that he would compete in which include the Shanghai Masters in China.

"Hello! This is my list of upcoming tournaments," the tennis player wrote on his official Twitter account on Thursday, while also uploading a photo of his immediate schedule, reports Xinhua.

Apart from Shanghai (October 9-16), the Argentine athlete will also participate in the Stockholm Open from October 17, and the Swiss Indoors at Basel from October 24.

The silver medalist from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics had been invited to attend the Chinese tournament by local authorities back in August, who even awarded del Potro with the tournament's first available wild card.

Del Potro, a finalist in the 2013 edition of the Shanghai Masters, defeated Spain's Rafael Nadal in the semi-final, but fell to Serbia's Novak Djokoivic in the final. Djokovic was ranked world number one at the time.

"We will be delighted to see Juan Martin return to the court in the Qizhong stadium, where everyone was excited to see him reach the final in 2013," the director of the Chinese tournament Michael Luvano said a few weeks ago.

Del Potro, 27, underwent four surgical procedures in 2010, three on his left wrist and one on his right, with another wrist injury in 2014 keeping him out of tournaments for the past two years. Since 2010, he has had sporadic returns and successes but nothing compared to the period before his first wrist injury.

In February, these injuries caused him to fall down to 1,045th position in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world ranking.

However, after returning to the court in February, he started to find his footing, and once again found himself at the top of world tennis.

During recent months, he has advanced to 64th place in world rankings, won an Olympic medal, led Argentina's team to the final in the David Cup, which they will play against Croatia in November. The Argentine has also seen memorable triumphs over Nadal, Djokovic, the UK's Andy Murray and Switzerland's Stan Wawrinka, among others.

--IANS

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