August twelfth, ‘09 was a bright, sunny Wednesday morning in Montreal. Since I was working at the Rogers Cup, I got admission to the grounds and had specially asked for the day off so I could go see all the professionals’ practices. It was indeed a rich schedule with the best 10 competing all the way through the day.

At eleven that day, a pal and I headed over toward Court 4 where the world’s No.1, Roger Federer, was due to arrive at 11:30am. Already jam packed with roughly a few hundred people, there was hardly any room to move.

As the time approached, the place was packed with people who enthusiastically waited to get a glimpse of the Swiss Maestro. With the sun scorching at 35 levels celsius, we watched him loosen up and we saw him hitting balls. To be honest, it was relatively unexciting and was scheduled to go on for 2 hours.

So, slowly, we move out of the crowd and come to an open space. I glance up at Court four on the far side to see a tall, lanky competitor clad in a pink Nike T-shirt and white shorts pounding some balls. I try to look closer and indeed realized it was Juan Martin Del Potro.

As he arrived at the exit gate, there had been 6 people waiting for him to have his autograph and he did give them out. As he signed my picture and went on to my pal, I said “I wish you the best of luck in your competition today.”

He turned around and had a large grin on his face and claimed “Thank you so much for your support.” He seemed like he was very pleased with what I had told him.

As he won the US Open this week, the irony of this scenario just came to my mind. The fact that essentially no one was at hand to root for him and Rog had a ton of supporters. Sometimes, it is better to be let alone than to be constantly followed.

Del Potro played a tremendous game this week and is totally worthy of his grand slam win. Well done!

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