Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman believes tennis needs to be modernized in the coming years after playing his last professional Tour match at the Argentina Open on Thursday.
The former world No.8 ended his career at the Buenos Aires Tennis Club with a 6-2, 6-2, loss to Pedro Martinez in the second round. Schwartzman, who is known by the nickname el peque (shorty), has been a prominent member of South American tennis for over a decade. A former French Open semi-finalist in 2020, he won four ATP titles and recorded 251 wins on the Tour. He also reached the final of the Italian Masters and played in the end-of-season finals. Overall, Schwartzman has reached the quarter-final or better at five Grand Slam tournaments.
“I understood my body, I understood my head. I knew I had been exhausted for a while and that I couldn’t keep up what I had always managed to do… I achieved much more than I ever dreamed of,” Schwartzman told ATPTour.com.
A popular figure in the sport, the 32-year-old has voiced his views on what he would like to happen to tennis in the future. Speaking to reporters in Argentina, he paid tribute to Novak Djokovic and his efforts to drive change in the sport. Djokovic is the co-founder of the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA). Schwartzman also spoke favorably about efforts to change the game format with events such as the Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) which he has previously taken part in.
“I would like to be there, listening, giving my opinion. I would like the players to have a much stronger voice. Djokovic is at the forefront, he’s trying to bring that change with the new federation [sic] he has,” Clay Tennis quoted Schwartzman as saying.
“I think tennis, like many other sports, in the next 10 to 15 years is going to go in a direction of change. There’s already another type of competition, like UTS, that’s looking for that change. And a lot of times you guys [referring to journalists] somehow compare what a player earns on the Tour to what they earn at those kinds of exhibitions.”
Elaborating further, Schwartzman has called for more flexibility in the sport so it can break away from some traditions.
“The reality is that it’s not just the money, but they are formats where you play fewer days and have more rest. So it’s something that closes (works) everywhere and I think tennis has to go for those models,” he said.
“We have to give freedom to certain places in the world that want to hold tournaments that are not the traditional seven-day, two-week tournaments. Do four or five-day things with different players and make it a bit more fun.
“At the end of the day, any sport, in order to survive, has to target the younger players, those who have always followed the sport and the new ones. You have to give tournaments and players the opportunity to come up with new ideas. It would be the most logical thing to do, it would be the best thing for the sport.”
Schwartzman is confident that some changes to the rules will occur but admits it may take ‘several years.’
