Diego Schwartzman made his debut in the ATP Finals against Novak Djokovic on Monday. The Argentinian player qualifified for the season-ending tournament for the first time in his career after after an impressive season, in which he reached his first Masters 1000 in Rome and the semifinal at Roland Garros earlier this year. He has made a consistent progression thanks to his dedication rising from world number 88 in 2015 to number 52 in 2016, number 26 in 2017, number 17 in 2018, number 14 in 2019 and number 9 in 2020.
Schwartzman started the season with the goal to reach the top 10, but he did not expect to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals.
“At the beginning of the year, I was trying to be close to the top 10. That was my goal at the beginning of the year. I was not thinking about London. After we came back to the tour after many months. After we came back to the tour, after many months, I started the first three or four weeks, not in my best shape and I was not thinking about London two months ago. After Rome, I was thinking, OK, if I do well in Paris, I have the chance to be in London and to be top ten”, said Schwartzman to Tennis Majors.
After the resumption of the ATP Tour Schwartzman wasted a two-set lead and two match points in the fifth game, when he lost to Cameron Norrie at the US Open. In Rome he beat Rafael Nadal for the first time in their 11 head-to-head matches. Nadal avenged this defeat beating Schwartzman in the Roland Garros semifinal. The Argentinian player lost the Cologne final against Alexander Zverev.
Schwartzman is the shortest player on the ATP Tour, but he tries to turn this disadvantage into an advantage.
“I think it gives me a lot of other things, how I move, how strong I am with my head, trying to take opportunities, how I work every day. I have a lot of different things; maybe the people who are two metres, they can do different ones. I think just it’s a different game and different practice every day”.
Schwartzman was named after Diego Armando Maradona and started playing football but he decided to play tennis, following in the footsteps of great Argentinian players like Guillermo Vilas, Gabriela Sabatini and Juan Martin Del Potro.
“Tennis is still a big sport in Argentina. Then you have a lot of sports, and maybe you have rugby, girls’hockey and a few more sports are really popular. Argentinian people like to do sports, like to watch professional sports. We are really passionate people. I think it’s really tough to start a tennis career because of the expensive conditions, because we are really far, but we have many people starting tennis”.
Schwartzman has a good relationship to Juan Martin Del Potro and has received a lot of support from the 2009 US Open champion.
“Del Potro is always sending messages when I am doing well. We have a good relationship. We are friends from the tour. It’s sad that he has a lot of injuries. When I started to play better, we did not share a lot of good tournamnents, but the guy, who really helped my career, the former players who are Mariano Zabaleta and Juan Monaco. They are like my big brothers. When I was 15 years, they started helping me. We did a lot of pre-seasons. These two guys helped me a lot in my career”, said Schwartzman.
Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have won the Australian Open and Roland Garros respectively earlier this year, but Dominic Thiem showed with his triumph at the US Open that other players can fight for Major titles. “Dominic is helping a lot of guys. Alexander Zverev as well, playing the final there to think, OK, we can do it, but it’s really difficult to beat these guys in five sets and in a Grand Slam. They are really good”, concluded Schwartzman.
