DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — The sun was setting when Juan Martín del Potro was finishing up his second practice session Sunday, the overhead lights creating eerie shadows across the stadium court at the Delray Beach Tennis Center.
It was the day before the start of the Delray Beach Open, the ATP Tour event at which del Potro made a triumphant return last year after 11 months away from the game because of wrist surgeries. He chose to begin his 2017 campaign here too. Del Potro was so exhausted after leading Argentina to its first Davis Cup championship last November that he felt he needed to skip an early-season event in Auckland, New Zealand, and the Australian Open in order to recover mentally and physically.