Diego Schwartzman


Diego Sebastián Schwartzman is an Argentine professional tennis player competing on the ATP Tour. He has won three ATP singles titles, and reached his career-high singles ranking of world No. 11 in June 2018. Although known as a clay court specialist, he actually prefers hard courts; additionally, he is noted for his high-quality return game. When he reached the quarterfinals of the 2017 US Open, the 5' 7" Schwartzman was the shortest Grand Slam quarterfinalist since Jaime Yzaga. Schwartzman said: "It’s not just for the big guys here."

Personal life

Schwartzman is Jewish, and is the son of Ricardo and Silvana Schwartzman. He was born and resides in Buenos Aires, Argentina. During the Holocaust his Polish maternal great-grandfather was put on a train to a Nazi concentration camp. The coupling that connected two of the train’s cars broke, allowing his great-grandfather and others inside one car to escape. His great-grandfather brought his family by boat from Germany to Argentina. When they arrived, they spoke Yiddish, but no Spanish. His father’s family emigrated from Russia to Argentina by boat.
Schwartzman has two brothers, and a sister, who is a lawyer. He and his siblings all attended Hebrew school and celebrated their bar and bat mitzvahs.
Schwartzman's nickname is El peque. As a youth, he played tennis at Club Náutico Hacoaj, a Jewish sport club in Buenos Aires that was established by and for Jews who were not allowed to join other sports clubs in the city in the early 20th century.

Career

2010–13

In 2010, at the age of 17, he won the Bolivia F3 Futures, and in 2011 he won the Chile F14 Futures. In 2012, Schwartzman won titles at the Peru F2 Futures, Argentina F11 Futures, Argentina F14 Futures, Argentina F20 Futures, Argentina F21 Futures, Argentina F22 Futures, and Buenos Aires Challenger. At the 2013 Australian Open, he lost in the final round of qualifying.

2014: Four Challenger titles & ATP Challenger Tour Finals champion

Schwartzman made his first appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam event at the 2014 French Open; he came through qualifying before making it to the second round, where he lost to Roger Federer. He lost in the first round of the 2014 US Open to Novak Djokovic.
In the ATP Challenger Tour, he won four titles at Aix-en-Provence, Prague, Campinas, and San Juan. In the 2014 ATP Challenger Tour Finals, he won over João Souza, Simone Bolelli, and Guilherme Clezar to claim the title. At the end of 2014 he was ranked # 61 in the world.

2015: Davis Cup semifinals

Schwartzman's best result of the season came at the 2015 Istanbul Open, where he reached the semifinals, beating former top-ten player Jürgen Melzer along the way. In the semis he faced tennis legend Roger Federer. Schwartzman won the first set decisively, before ultimately falling 7–5 in the final set. He was also part of the Argentine Davis Cup Team, which reached the semifinals in 2015.

2016: First ATP title

Schwartzman won his first-ever singles title at the 2016 Istanbul Open—an outdoor 250 clay court event. He impressively defeated established top player Grigor Dimitrov in the final, coming back to win 6–0 in the final set after losing the first set in a tie-break. Later, Dimitrov apologized for his behavior during the match, after he smashed three rackets, which ultimately led to a warning, a point penalty, and then another point penalty. The second and final point penalty came with Dimitrov down 5–0 and gave the game, set, and match to Schwartzman.
In October, Schwartzman reached his second final at the 250 level, in Antwerp. He lost to Richard Gasquet 6–7, 1–6 in the final. In 2016, he led all ATP players in percentage of break points converted, at 46.6%.

2017: US Open quarterfinals

Schwartzman reached the third round at the 2017 French Open, where he faced Novak Djokovic. He had a 2–1 set lead, but eventually Djokovic won in five sets.
In the 2017 Canadian Open the 25-year-old saved four match points to pull off a remarkable 4-6, 7–6, 7–5 upset of No. 3 seed Dominic Thiem, his first-ever win over a top-10 player. As of mid-August 2017, he was leading the ATP tour in winning percentage in return games at 36 per cent, with Nadal in second place and Djokovic in fourth place.
On September 1, he defeated world No. 7, and 5th seed, Marin Cilic in the third round at the 2017 US Open to equal the biggest win of his career. On September 3, he beat world No. 20, and 16th seed, Lucas Pouille in the fourth round to reach his first career major quarterfinal. At 5' 7", Schwartzman was the shortest Grand Slam quarterfinalist since Jaime Yzaga. Schwartzman said: "It’s not just for the big guys here."
Schwartzman's 2017 season proved to be the best of his career to that point. He finished the year ranked world No. 25, in addition to making his first major quarterfinal; he also made two quarterfinals at the Masters 1000 level. He won 39 singles matches and earned $1,536,000 over the course of the season, easily besting his previous records of 17 match wins and $441,000 in the 2016 season. In 2017 he led all ATP players in percentage of second serve return points won and percentage of return games won, while coming in third behind Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal in percentage of first serve return points won. Finally, he scored his first win over a top-10 player, and then just two weeks later he racked up a second top-10 win.

2018: Second ATP title, top-15 ranking & second Grand Slam quarterfinal

In his first 17 Grand Slam tournaments, Schwartzman had only reached the 3rd round one time. However, at the 2018 Australian Open, he advanced to the 4th round, where he played world No. 1 Rafael Nadal. For the first time in his career, Schwartzman made the second week at a major for the second consecutive time, following his quarterfinal showing at the 2017 US Open. Despite going into the match with an 0-3 head-to-head record, 0-7 in sets, Schwartzman took the second-set tiebreak 7-4 before eventually going down in 4 sets. By virtue of his performance, he reached a new career-high singles ranking of No. 24 on 29 January 2018.
He then went on to capture the title at the 2018 Rio Open, a clay ATP 500 level tournament, defeating Fernando Verdasco 6–2, 6–3. The Rio Open marked the biggest title of Schwartzman's career thus far. He reached a new career-high singles ranking of No. 15 on April 2, 2018, and was the first Jewish male player to break into the singles top 20 since Brad Gilbert was fourth in 1990. At the 2018 French Open, Schwartzman made it into his second Grand Slam quarterfinal. He didn't drop a set on his run to the 4th round where he faced 6th seed world #7 Kevin Anderson and managed to win in just under four hours, after coming back from two sets to love down for the first time in his career. In the quarterfinals he took the first set from Rafael Nadal, but it started raining and the next day Rafa won the next three sets. His quarterfinal showing marked his 3rd consecutive grand slam where he made it to the second week of competition.
Schwartzman participated in only two grass court events in 2018; they included the Eastbourne International and Wimbledon. Although Schwartzman was the #1 seed at Eastbourne, he fell in the first round to Mirza Bašić in three sets. At Wimbledon, Schwartzman scored his first career grass win by defeating Mirza Bašić in straight sets, before falling in the 2nd round to Jiří Veselý.
Schwartzman reached the quarter-finals of the 2018 German Open, but fell to eventual finalist Leonardo Mayer in three sets. In 2018 he was second to Nadal among all ATP players in percentage of second serve return points won and percentage of return games won.

2019: Third ATP title, first Masters doubles final & French Open doubles semifinal

At the 2019 Australian Open Schwartzman defeated Rudolf Molleker in four sets and American Denis Kudla in a five-set thriller. He was knocked out in the third round by former Wimbledon finalist, Tomáš Berdych.
Schwartzman then competed in the 2019 Cordoba Open, making the quarterfinals. Schwartzman went on to make the finals at the 2019 Argentina Open, a clay ATP 250 level tournament. Along his way to the finals Schwartzman defeated world #8 Dominic Thiem, 2-6, 6-4, 7-6. Schwartzman lost in straight sets to Italian Marco Cecchinato in the finals.
Schwartzman was unable to defend his title at the 2019 Rio Open, retiring in the second set with a right leg injury in the first round.
Schwartzman defeated world #6 Kei Nishikori 6–4, 6–2 in the quarterfinals of the 2019 Italian Open, before being defeated by Djokovic in three sets.
Schwartzman then captured the title at the 2019 Los Cabos Open, defeating Taylor Fritz in the final, 7–6, 6–3. It marked his first-ever title at a hard court tournament, and third ATP title.
At the 2019 US Open, in the fourth round he upset world #6 Alexander Zverev in four sets, for his sixth career victory against a top-10 opponent.
In 2019, as he had done in 2017, he led all ATP players in percentage of second serve return points won. Career-wise, he was fourth among active players in return games won, behind only Nadal, Djokovic, and Andy Murray.

Playing style

Schwartzman is a baseline player, with solid groundstrokes on both wings and the ability to both counterpunch and go on the offensive. He is known for the clean hitting off both his forehand and backhand, and is capable of taking the ball on the rise and hitting them with depth and pace. He plays well on the defensive due to his speed and ability to hit winners from defensive positions far out of the court. His speed also allows him to retrieve drop shots and hit passing shots with ease.
Schwartzman has a consistent, though not outstanding, serve and arguably plays better on the return than on serve. In 2017, he led the ATP statistically on return games won and second serve points won. He also possesses solid volleys and prefers the drop volley, though they are not a major weapon in his game.
Schwartzman's speed and powerful baseline game have resulted in most of his success coming on clay rather than hard courts or grass. However, in the past few years he has attempted to add more variety in his game, resulting in breakthroughs particularly on grass, scoring his first ever win on grass only in 2018.

ATP career finals

Singles: 8 (3 titles, 5 runners-up)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScore
Win1–02016 Istanbul Open – Singles|Istanbul Open, Turkey250 SeriesClay Grigor Dimitrov6–7, 7–6, 6–0
Loss1–12016 European Open – Singles|European Open, Belgium250 SeriesHard Richard Gasquet6–7, 1–6
Loss1–22017 European Open – Singles|European Open, Belgium250 SeriesHard 3–6, 5–7
Win2–22018 Rio Open – Singles|Rio Open, Brazil500 SeriesClay6–2, 6–3
Loss2–32019 Argentina Open – Singles|Argentina Open, Argentina250 SeriesClay1–6, 2–6
Win3–32019 Los Cabos Open – Singles|Los Cabos Open, Mexico250 SeriesHard Taylor Fritz7–6, 6–3
Loss3–4Oct 2019Vienna Open, Austria500 SeriesHard Dominic Thiem6–3, 4–6, 3–6
Loss3–5Feb 2020Córdoba Open, Argentina250 SeriesClay Cristian Garín6–2, 4–6, 0–6

Doubles: 4 (4 runners-up)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore
Loss0–12015 Brasil Open – Doubles|Brasil Open, Brazil250 SeriesClay Paolo Lorenzi Juan Sebastián Cabal
Robert Farah		4–6, 2–6
Loss0–22016 Istanbul Open – Doubles|Istanbul Open, Turkey250 SeriesClay Andrés Molteni Flavio Cipolla
Dudi Sela		3–6, 7–5,
Loss0–32019 Argentina Open – Doubles|Argentina Open, Argentina250 SeriesClay Dominic Thiem Máximo González
Horacio Zeballos		1–6, 1–6
Loss0–42019 Mutua Madrid Open – Men's Doubles|Madrid Open, SpainMasters 1000Clay Dominic Thiem Jean-Julien Rojer
Horia Tecău		2–6, 3–6

Challenger finals

Singles (15)

Legend
ATP Challenger Tour Finals
ATP Challengers Tour

Finals by Surface
Hard
Clay
Grass
Carpet

OutcomeNo.DateTournamentSurfaceOpponentScore
Winner1.28 October 2012Buenos Aires, ArgentinaClay Guillaume Rufin6–1, 7–5
Runner-up1.29 April 2013Tunis, TunisiaClay Adrian Ungur6–4, 0–6, 2–6
Runner-up2.24 June 2013Marburg, GermanyClay Andrey Golubev1–6, 3–6
Runner-up3.7 September 2013Banja Luka, Bosnia and HerzegovinaClay Aljaž Bedene3–6, 4–6
Runner-up4.7 October 2013San Juan, ArgentinaClay Guido Andreozzi7–6, 6–7 0–6
Runner-up5.28 October 2013Montevideo, UruguayClay Thomaz Bellucci4–6, 4–6
Runner-up6.7 April 2014Itajaí, BrazilClay Facundo Argüello6–4, 0–6, 4–6
Winner2.12 May 2014Aix-en-Provence, FranceClay Andreas Beck6–7, 6–3, 6–2
Winner3.10 August 2014Prague, Czech RepublicClay Andre Ghem6–4, 7–5
Winner4.15 September 2014Campinas, BrazilClay Andre Ghem4–6, 6–4, 7–5
Runner-up7.22 September 2014Porto Alegre, BrazilClay Carlos Berlocq4–6, 6–4, 0–6
Winner5.19 October 2014San Juan, ArgentinaClay João Souza7–6, 6–3
Winner6.23 November 2014São Paulo, BrazilClay Guilherme Clezar6–2, 6–3
Winner7.11 September 2016Barranquilla, ColombiaClay Rogério Dutra Silva6–4, 6–1
Winner8.19 November 2016Montevideo, UruguayClay Rogério Dutra Silva6–4, 6–1

Performance timelines

Singles

Current through the 2020 Australian Open.

Doubles

Wins over top 10 players

Season2010201120122013201420152016201720182019Total
Wins00000002147