The night Diego Schwartzman reacted to obstacles and disguised himself as an “escapist” at the Canadian Masters 1000

If there is an aspect in which, in general, Diego Schwartzman It does not save, it is in the delivery. El Peque, number 8 in the world in October 2020 and current 15th in the ranking, built, through pure combat on the court, an outstanding career amid sacrifices and limitations. Today, in a period in which the results do not accompany him as he intends, he seems to lose heart quickly.

For this reason, Montreal’s victory last night against Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (36th; this year’s finalist in Monte Carlo), for the first round of the Canadian Masters 1000, for him it acquires an energizing value. After losing the first set 6-1, very quickly, the man from Buenos Aires won the second 6-3, but in the third set he was very close to saying goodbye. He was down 0-3 and the man from Malaga had three break points to go ahead 4-0, which would have been practically a sentence. However, the player who will turn 30 next Tuesday reacted with courage and patience to win that last set 6-4.

Today, in the fourth shift of court 9 (approximately 5:30 p.m. in Argentina; ESPN and Star+ broadcast), he will face another Spaniard: left-handed Albert Ramos Viñolas (43rd), whom he defeated in five of six games, although all on brick dust (the last one, in the quarterfinals of the ATP in Córdoba 2021).

Apart from today’s new challenge, the victory against Davidovich Fokina should serve as a emotional springboard to Schwartzman. “The last two months were not good, especially because of the performance I had. Because many times you can have streaks that are not so good but you feel comfortable, but in these last two months I felt uncomfortable, ”the Argentine had acknowledged, on ESPN, before traveling to Canada to begin his participation in the North American surface tour hard that will end at the US Open, the last Grand Slam of the year, starting on the 29th of this month. After reaching the round of 16 in the last Roland Garros tournament, Peque’s performances were very opaque: on the grass-court tour (three defeats, one victory) and in his last European tournaments on clay (hard fall 6- 1 and 6-0 in Bastad, in the quarterfinals, against the Spanish Pablo Carreño Busta; and in his debut at the ATP 500 in Hamburg against the Finnish Emil Ruusuvuori).

“Until Roland Garros, I had been having a very good year, I was very close to the Top 10, in what would be the race and the amount of points that had been adding up to that moment. Then I did a stop at my level and I did not find him again in the weeks following Roland Garros. Hopefully in the coming weeks, in the United States, it will return to that level”, Schwartzman had hoped, during his brief stay in Buenos Aires. Last night, when he already seemed eliminated, the support of the public seemed to feed his confidence and he starred in a wonderful tennis revival. El Peque hadn’t won on hard surfaces since he beat Ruusuvuori last March at the Indian Wells Masters 1000. In addition, this against Davidovich Fokina was his tenth success of the year coming back from 0-1 in sets.

The triumph -and above all the emotional reaction- of Schwartzman is also celebrated by Guillermo Coria, of course, the Argentine captain of the Davis cup, which in the next few days must define the list of five summoned for the trip to Bologna, Italy, for the group stage of the Finals. Schwartzman, plus Francisco Cerúndolo, Sebastián Báez and doubles players Horacio Zeballos and Máximo González would be the five selected by Coria to play Group A along with Croatia, Italy and Sweden.

For now, El Peque continues on his way on the North American tour on hard courts, with life in Montreal. Then will come the Cincinnati Masters 1000 and the US Open. What is valuable, in this case for the player trained by Alejandro Fabbri and Juan Ignacio Chela, are the signs of recovery.

Summary of Schwartzman’s victory in Canada: