of just 4 games in the first round. However, the day after his victory, Del Potro heard that his grandfather died and subsequently withdrew from the tournament. Del Potro withdrew from the Madrid Open, reappearing at the Italian Open where he reached the quarterfinals of a Masters 1000 tournament for the first time since the 2013 Paris Masters, following victories over 10th seed Grigor Dimitrov, Kyle Edmund and 7th seed Kei Nishikori, which was his first victory in 2017 over a top 10 ranked player. However, he succumbed yet again to world No. 2 Novak Djokovic in straight sets. Del Potro then competed at the newly formed Lyon Open, where he defeated lucky loser Quentin Halys, but lost in the next round against Portuguese qualifier Gastão Elias in straight sets. Doubt was cast over his participation at the French Open because of a back injury that had hampered him at Lyon, but he eventually decided to partake in the event. Del Potro entered as the 29th seed, the first time since the 2014 Australian Open that he was seeded at a Grand Slam tournament. In the first round, Del Potro defeated Guido Pella in straight sets, and in the second round against Nicolas Almagro, it was one set apiece before Almagro retired. Del Potro eventually fell in straight sets to top seed Andy Murray in the third round. After suffering an early second round exit at Wimbledon, Del Potro began his summer North American hard court season at Washington, where he lost to Kei Nishikori in the third round. He then lost to Denis Shapovalov in the second round of Montreal, and to eventual champion Grigor Dimitrov in the third round of Cincinnati. At the US Open, Del Potro defeated Henri Laaksonen, Adrián Menéndez-Maceiras and Roberto Bautista Agut in straight sets, putting his best year performance to date against Bautista Agut. He began his fourth round match against Dominic Thiem greatly struggling, falling two sets behind. However, he then raised his level and, with the help of the crowd, he eventually prevailed in five sets, including saving two match points in the fourth set with two aces. In the post match interview he admitted he considered retiring from the match during the second set. The US Open account on Instagram switched his racquet for Thor's hammer using software editing tools, which created a new nickname for the Argentine: Juan Martin