It was his farewell to the Masters tournament and also to his great year. Diego Schwartzman lost with Daniil Medvedev by 6-3 and 6-3 in little more than an hour and thus the Argentine left his first ATP Finals with three defeats in the same number of games in the 1970 Tokyo Group. Meanwhile, the Russian became the only player in the tournament to win his zone undefeated.
Ranked No. 9 in the world, Schwartzman ended 2020 being the eighth best of the year, discounting the case of the Swiss Roger Federer, fifth in the ATP ranking but inactive due to injury. Thus the Argentine entered for the first time the prestigious and traditional contest that closes the season with the eight best.
The last duel between the Argentine and the Russian had taken place in the quarterfinals of the last edition of the Masters 1000 in Paris weeks ago, with a 6-3, 6-1 victory for the Russian. This time, the porteño could barely take off two more games.
The speed, confidence and solidity of Medvedev, No. 4 in the world, were too much for Schwartzman’s expectations of trying to clinch a win in this historic week in his career. He had fallen to Serbian Novak Djokovic, world leader, and German Alexander Zverev (7th), while he only got one set, against the German.
Thus, he was the eighth Argentine man to qualify for a final ATP Masters but was left with the desire to win a match. He was in the group with rivals who were not exactly the ones he intended.
On Saturday, in the first semifinal, Djokovic will face the Austrian Dominic Thiem (3rd), winner of the other group, while later Medvedev will play with the Spanish Rafael Nadal (2nd), who is still looking to conquer this for the first time. Masters tournament.
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