Juan Martin del Potro excited over the prospect of bonding with Lionel Messi following the football legend’s move to Miami

FIFA World Cup 2022 champion Lionel Messi recently made a move to the Major League Soccer side Inter Miami. Messi refuted interest from several Saudi clubs to move to the David Beckham-owned side. Miami famously inhabits a large Argentine diaspora. The Argentine community played a huge role in Messi moving to Miami. There’s another Argentine star who has made Miami his home, the 2009 US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro.

In an interview with Tennis.com, the former world number 3 expressed his wish to link up with Messi. Talking about his time in Miami, del Potro said, “I like the way of the life in Miami now. We have Messi here, which means something special for all the Argentinian people living there.” In response to a question on if he would see it as an opportunity to grow his connection with Messi, the Argentine pro replied, “I [would] love to. Being close to Messi for Argentinian people means a lot. We will hopefully have time to hang out in the future. He just arrived. He’s trying to adapt to the new club, the new colleagues, the new house, different life. And he has three kids.”

In his first seven appearances for Inter Miami, Messi has scored ten goals. The 7-time Ballon d’Or winner already has one title to his name with the new side.

Talking about Messi’s performance in the MLS and the World Cup win last year, del Potro remarked, “But, for me, it’s so nice watching him playing in this league. He’s always smiling and he looks very, very happy. I think he deserved to be like that after many years of his career suffering, trying to win the World Cup championship, and finally he got it. Now it’s time to enjoy. Sometimes the pressure has to be out and the good things has to come and join this.”

Messi has taken the league by storm. Inter Miami matches are seeing record attendance. Ticket prices have skyrocketed due to a massive rise in demand. Miami, being home to a large Hispanic community, has a large number of football fans, and they’ve found a perfect player to help them enjoy the sport.

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Juan Martin del Potro is proud to be a part of the Big-3 era of tennis

With the win over Carlos Alcaraz in the final of the Cincinnati Masters, Novak Djokovic re-established the dominance of big-3 over the next-gen of tennis. The Big-3 share a whopping 65 Grand Slam titles between them. Talking about the big-3, del Potro said, “They are the biggest players in the tennis history, one of the biggest athletes in the history, too.”

Del Potro also talked about the Alcaraz-Djokovic rivalry. Saying that the two are playing tennis on another level, del Potro elaborated, “For the tennis fans, would be great to see them fighting very often. I think people will go wild watching them playing finals, as they did in Wimbledon.” The Argentine also backed Alcaraz as the successor to his hammer forehand.

Del Potro, who jointly holds the record for most wins on hard court against World No.1s, recently announced that he won’t take part in the upcoming US Open. Talking about the decision, the former US Open champ said, “The pain I feel does not allow me to focus on a comeback yet.”

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