South America’s highest ranked player Diego Schwartzman has set a goal of trying to be fit in time for next months BNP Paribas Open after being forced to withdraw from his home tournament.
The world No. 14 pulled out of his semi-final match at the Buenos Aires Open on Saturday against Portugal’s Pedro Sousa. Schwartzman has been diagnosed with a small tear in his left abductor that he developed during his marathon quarter-final win that took place on the previous day. Taking on Pablo Cuevas, he prevailed after three hours and 41 minutes of play. Making it the longest match in the history of the Argentina Open, according to national newspaper La Nacion.
“After the game with Cuevas I had an ultrasound, I had already had a tear, but it is good to have a resonance a couple of hours later, when there is no longer so much inflammation, because after three hours and 40 minutes the muscle is all shattered, and in the other study it was more or less the same.” Schwartzman said of his injury.
“The different thing was that the tear was a little smaller, but in another more important muscle. Instead of the hamstring, it is the main adductor. The doctors told me not to play, that any physical activity that the muscle was going to open (be injured) more.”
It is a frustrating outcome for the 27-year-old, who was two wins away from winning his first ATP title on home soil. He was the only top 40 player to have reached the last four in Buenos Aires. The next highest is Norway’s Casper Ruud, who will take on Sousa in the title match on Sunday.
As a result of his injury, Schwartzman has been advised to rest and therefore missed the remainder of his South American clay-court tour. He was also set to play in Rio de Janeiro next week.
“The deadlines are two to three weeks of recovery.” He said.
“The doctor told me if I jumped to the court (in Buenos Aires) I could be more than a month out and that is why I did not want to risk it.”
Besides the tour, the Argentine is also likely to miss his country’s Davis Cup tie with Colombia that will get underway on March 6th. The next highest ranked player from his country is Guido Pella at 27th.
“I guess I’ll be back on the hard court tour of the United States,” he concluded.
Schwartzman has won nine matches on the ATP Tour so far this season. After reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open, he was runner-up to Christian Garin in Cordoba last week. On the other hand, he has lost all three of his matches against top 10 opposition in 2020.
