He is “El Peque”, the little one, nickname caught from childhood, and who sticks to his sneakers. He can achieve the performances he wants, Diego Schwartzman, to reach the semi-finals of Roland-Garros on Friday October 9 after having released at the end of a Homeric match the recent winner of the US Open Dominic Thiem, it is d first and always on its size that commentators return: 1.68 m under the gauge. The tablets assure it: never has such a template been found in the last four of a Grand Slam tournament for at least half a century.
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So “El Peque” explains. Yes the Argentinian is called Diego in reference to the football star as high as three apples, Diego Maradona. And since we are talking about football, we might as well remember that at the dawn of his adolescence, he was offered to take growth hormones like another Lilliputian champion, Lionel Messi. But her parents refused. So the kid didn’t push too hard. Nevertheless, he advanced, because it devoured him, the passion for the yellow ball, and for a long time. And this is the essential.
Difficult beginnings
From the age of 4, Diego Schwartzman bounces her against the kitchen door by knocking with a ladle. And it is the tennis he chooses at 12 years old, even if football has been eyeing him for a few years. The desire is there, less the conditions to become an ace of the racket. The Schwartzmans and their four children – of whom Diego is bound to be the “youngest” last – are not rolling in gold after the bankruptcy of the father’s jewelry business. To support the tennis beginnings of the son, the D system is called. They make plastic bracelets that were fashionable at the time that mother and son sell between games in tournaments.
It’s not great, but it pays for low-end hotels and first trips to Argentina. Diego progresses rather slowly but, hardworking like no other, does not give up. The Argentines after all are not one-armed in the discipline. Without going looking for a Guillermo Vilas winner of four Grand Slams between 1977 and 1980, we can evoke these players who marked the years of apprenticeship of Diego Schwartzman. Gaston Gaudio for example, that the chronicle rarely retains, but who won at Roland Garros in 2004, for a 100% Argentinian final against Guillermo Coria. Particularity of the two: their talent did not drop from very high, only 1.75 m.
A typical Argentine “grinta”
And who remembers, the following year, still on Parisian clay, of Mariano Puerta, tough finalist but beaten by a young Rafael Nadal who began his impressive series there? The story will end badly for the man, soon convinced of doping, but other Argentines will take over. David Nalbandian and his four Grand Slam semi-finals, including Melbourne and Paris in 2006, Juan Martin del Potro and his US Open won in 2009. Enough to maintain Diego’s ambition. Who then gets a patron and can finally perfect his training.
The consecration however remains rather late. Needy, the Argentinian is not the high roller type, but his speed of movement, his generosity well in the Argentine tradition and his game which exceeds the only ability to defend fiercely, ended up paying off in 2017 where he invited himself in US Open quarterfinal. A good habit that he keeps in 2018 in Paris and in 2019 again at the US Open, both times eliminated by Rafael Nadal.
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2020, time for revenge? The Spaniard is again on the road to the Argentinian this Friday 9, at the Paris central. With a slight psychological advantage for Diego: his victory over Nadal on September 20, in the quarterfinals in Rome (6-2, 7-5). Unbolt the legend in search of a thirteenth success at Roland Garros? At 28, El Peque can do it. Boss size, really.
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