DELRAY BEACH, February 19, 2019

Juan Martin Del Potro will return to the courts at the Delray Beach Open by Vitacost.com to begin his 2019 season after having a very successful 2018, picking up two titles in Acapulco and Indian Wells, as well as reaching the final of the US Open for the first time since 2009.

The 30-year-old Argentine, who lifted the trophy in Florida in 2011, will play his first competitive match since sustaining a fractured patella in his right knee last October at the ATP Masters 1000 in Shanghai. Del Potro will be the top seed of the ATP 250 event and will open his campaign on Tuesday evening against Yoshihito Nishioka from Japan.

“I have great memories playing here,” del Potro said during a press conference Monday. “I love to come back and play in this event. And I have a lot of Argentina fans coming to watch my game in this tournament, so it’s a little bit special to me.

“I’m ready to play a match again. I know I will need a little bit of time to get confidence in my body and my game. I’m not feeling that I’m a hundred percent yet. But some day I have to start to play and we decided to do it here in Delray Beach because I have good memories from the past, so hopefully I do well.”

Del Potro, currently ranked World No. 4, entered the main draw with a wild card and could face either Tennys Sandgren or last week’s New York Open champion Reilly Opelka in the second round.