2023-05-29 16:15:00
PARIS (Special Envoy).- It is Pentecost Monday, a public holiday in France. the corridors of Roland Garros they are a boiling audience of viewers of all ages. The climate, in addition, sunny and with 21 degrees, accompanies. In court number 13, geographically located at the end of the property, a few meters from the Crossroads of Fighters, a roundregarding located on the edge of the Boulogne-Billancourt neighborhood that honors war veterans, shouts of support are heard in Spanish, but many also in French. “Come on (come on), Diegooo! If there is something that caused the little schwartzman on the circuit since he raised his status, he is empathy. It will be because since he was a child everything cost him twice due to his short stature in a challenging sport from an athletic point of view or because of the spark (sympathy) he has (or both), but the porteño is definitely a player loved by the international public.
For this reason, many of the tennis fans who populated the small court in the Bois de Boulogne, suffered and enjoyed together with him; they got involved. They lamented his impotence. They felt the nerves of Silvana, Diego’s mother, located in the first row of the court, as their own. But they were delighted when Schwartzman found the way and turned an extremely thorny game around to prevail 1-6, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-0 and 6-4, in 3h37m, once morest the granite Spanish Bernabé Zapata Miralles (38th; semifinalist in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, last February). He arrived at the French Open at the limit of the top hundred (95th), having to defend valuable 180 points for last year’s round of 16; At times he seemed to be close to being fired in the first round and the consequence in the ranking would have been cruel and forceful, since he would have fallen to 120 °, approximately.
Schwartzman showed two faces. During many sections of the game he seemed to have lost his essence, lost something sacred that elevated him during his development in the super elite: fighting ability, conviction, illusion. He even missed a backhand, something that practically did not happen before. And it’s not that he errs because the ball narrowly misses him when he takes risks: many shots remain in the net. He wasn’t holding the focus. An example: he started the match once morest Zapata Miralles by breaking his serve, but then lost six games in a row (and the set). But when he mightn’t find long-term solutions and only showed fleeting glimpses, he made a clic. His rival stopped pushing as before, the Argentine raised the level, began to fail much less and there was a comeback that can (should) help him start once more. A triumph that has to make him proud and, above all, renew it.
“They had been months in which things were not given to me, neither the level nor the victories. When I had found a little bit of good feelings, in Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo and Barcelona, I had draws that didn’t help me at all, once morest Sinner twice and with Rune; Maybe if I had hit a little more I might have improved my year, but it wasn’t like that and I fell back a bit. Today what I need happened a bit: the rhythm of the match and being five sets helped me find my level. Hopefully I can play two or three games a week once more, which is one of the keys, ”Schwartzman pointed out in a very rich press conference in which he delved into what is happening to him.
“What’s happening to me? Don’t know. We tried different ways, even within my team. I always did things one way, I still do them the same way and I did it in a very good mood, but it doesn’t work out. Also, Being honest, I’m a little tired. It costs me a little more every day and also the competition. I was always a player who did things very well off the pitch and found answers on the pitch, but now the latter is not happening. It is difficult for those desires to be renewed. I don’t have to think regarding the ranking anymore, because a lot was lost and to go back to that there is an abyss. I have to try to do it in a different way, but we have to see how long I feel like doing to continue going every day to do it the way I do. They don’t see me, but they can’t give an idea of what I prepare for each tournament, but when the results are not given, it costs more, ”he confided.
And he continued, looking towards his horizon on the tour: “The game gives me enormous joy, but I don’t want to be a player who does it just to do it. One of the explanations is that: I have wear and tear in the effort that I make on a day-to-day basis that is enormous and today it is costing me a little more and that is transferred to the pitch. We have to see if I can find that energy once more on a day-to-day basis”.
By defeating Zapa Miralles, Schwartzman caught up with the man from Tandil Juan Martin del Potro in the second step of the Argentine men with the most wins in the French Open. First of all, Guillermo Villas, of course, with 57. In addition, it was the third time that he came back from a match in a Grand Slam tournament following having lost the first two sets. The others? Also at Roland Garros. In the fourth round of 2018 he faced South African Kevin Anderson 1-6, 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 and 6-2. And once morest the Spanish Jaume Munar, in the second round of last year, by 2-6, 6-7, 6-2, 6-2 and 6-2.
“Those are numbers I never imagined reaching. Perhaps what bothers me the most is the loss of value when things don’t go well. The other day I was looking at history and in recent years it had finished 12, 8, 13, 16…, and nothing, one already takes it for granted. ‘That’s good,’ she says to herself. The value of a lot of issues that are incredible is lost, especially for a player who at 21 years old was very average. He was a good player, but normal. These data, like the joy of my teammates in the locker room, is the best thing that this victory ( once morest Zapata) leaves me, ”Schwartzman emphasized.
What’s there for him from now on if he can’t get his level back? “I feel like I belong to a place where I did well for many years. One has to believe that he is good, that he does things well. The day I don’t feel that I’ll say: ‘I’ve come this far’. If next year I see that I continue in the same way, trying, doing the same as always but tennis does not give me back…, then I will see what I do in my day to day. This is the first bad year, so you have to give yourself the chance to have a tennis slump, with changes within the team and new things. I don’t know how I would respond to a second year, a third, putting together a different calendar from the one I had all these years and not because of a loss of humility., but because each one feels comfortable in a ranking and in certain tournaments. I am no longer a baby; I am regarding to turn 31 years old. As I told my team at the beginning of the year: I’m going to do everything in my power to be the best I can be. Then we’ll see what happens.”
Schwartzman’s next rival will be the Portuguese Nuno Borges, 80th, who beat the American John Isner 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (7-3), 4-7 and 7-6 (11-9). . The record has only one confrontation between the two and it was a month ago, at the Challenger in Phoenix: he won the European Championship 7-5, 6-3.
Etcheverry, for the first time in Paris
the platense Thomas Etcheverry He achieved his second Grand Slam victory, the first at Roland Garros. It was 6-4, 1-0 and retirement once morest the British Jack Draper, who had physical difficulties and, at one point, even served from below. The current 49th in the ranking, now, awaits the winner of the Australian Alex De Miñaur or the Belarusian Ilya Ivashka.
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