Opinion – James Spencer (Twitter – @jspencer28)
Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman has posted some fine results over the years, but has often lacked consistency.
Mainly seen as a clay-court specialist, there is no doubt that the diminutive talent can beat anyone on that surface.
After all he downed the King of Clay, Rafa Nadal, at the quarter final stage of the Italian Open in the autumn edition back in 2020.
Before making his first ever, and to date, sole Masters 1000 final appearance in the Italian capital.
There he came up short against Novak Djokovic.
However, another impressive showing soon followed as Schwartzman came back from two sets to one down in the quarter finals of the French Open, to beat Dominic Thiem in five.
The match lasted just over five hours and won the respect of both players and fans across the globe.
Considering Thiem is twice a French Open finalist, this was some scalp.
The Argentine was then easily beaten by Nadal in the semis, who then went onto crush adversary Djokovic just as easily, including an embarrassing final set bagel. (6-0 set)
But since then, Schwartzman has disappeared.
Having reached a high of world number eight that same year, last season was not as strong, by his standards.
Still floating around in the top 20, Schwartzman must surely have big aspirations to ditch his nearly man tag and cause some serious damage more often at Grand Slams and Masters 1000 events.
Most recently, at the Monte Carlo Masters, Schwartzman played his best match of the season yet against Stefanos Tsitsipas.
He may have lost the opening set 6-2, but he prevented the Greek from closing out a straight sets win, to pinch the second set in a tie-breaker 7-6 (7-3).
The 5ft 5. Argentinian zoomed into a 4-0 lead and looked to be cruising, and on course for the semi-finals.
However, he capitulated and lost the next six games in a row, to go down 6-4 in a disappointing defeat.
It was almost poetic in the sense that Schwartzman has the sheer ability to beat the very best, but lacks the mental strength to get over the finish line.
Tsitsipas would then go onto win the Monte Carlo Masters for a second time in his career.
But the story could have been very different had Schwartzman won this encounter, he could well have been the one celebrating a first Masters 1000 triumph.
To his credit, he made the semis in Barcelona last week, coming up short against Pablo Carreño Busta.
Another match, which on paper, he could have won, considering he is ranked three places higher than the Spaniard.
Now the Argentinian number one turns his attention to the Madrid Open where he will open his account against a qualifier.
With the Italian Open and French Open again coming into view, where Schwartzman has fond memories, will we finally see on a regular, the best the Argentinian has to offer.
