The ‘Little One’, 38th in the world ranking and who had been downgraded to try to reunite with his best version, could not against the Portuguese Bruno Borges (80th).
Diego Schwartzman he fails to reverse his lazy moment. El Peque, 38th in the world, added a new defeat in a season with poor results when he fell on his debut in the Challenger de Phoenix, tournament for which he had received a special invitation after his early elimination from the Indian Wells Masters 1000. The porteño, second favourite, lost 7-5 and 6-3 with the Portuguese Bruno Borges80th in the ranking, and extended his losing streak in 2023, in which he could barely win two of the ten games he played.
After saying goodbye in the second round of Indian Wells against Casper Ruud, decided to accept the wild card of the Arizona Tennis Classic, a contest that takes place on hard courts and distributes 220 thousand dollars in prizes. His objective was to continue working and not lose the progress he had felt in recent weeks: he had taken good feelings from the ATP in Santiago de Chile, despite not being able to get past the first round, and had achieved his second victory of the year by winning Federico Coria in his debut in the Californian desert. But in Phoenix he had another setback.
The 30-year-old Argentinian once again showed his lack of confidence and timing and he could not do much against Borges, a rival he had never faced and who surpassed him in just one hour and 26 minutes.
He small He will have to shake off the anger quickly and return to training quickly, since he has another important appointment ahead of him, the Masters 1000 de Miami. In the Florida contest, which will start next Wednesday, the porteño defends just 10 points, since last year he lost in his debut in the second round with Thanasi Kokkinakis. Thus, he could get a good harvest if he manages to capture on the court the good feelings that, as he told during the Argentina Open in a chat with Clarín, he has in training.
The Phoenix tournament was the first challenger Schwartzman had played in nearly seven years. His last participation in that circuit had been in Montevideofrom November 14 to 20, 2016, when, located in 58th place in the ATP rankings, he lifted the trophy – the eighth of his career – by beating the Brazilian 6-4, 6-1 Rogerio Dutra Silva, then 103°. It was the end of a season in which he had won his first title (at the beginning of May, in Istanbul) and played another final, in October, in Antwerp.
The following year, the porteño began the rise that led him to win another three titles (Rio de Janeiro 2018, Los Cabos 2019 and Buenos Aires 2021); to subdue Rafael Nadal, the undisputed King of brick dust, on his favorite surface, at Rome 2020; to be a semifinalist in Roland Garros that same year; He has already reached the eighth step of the world ranking. And to remain, in addition, in the top 40 of the classification uninterruptedly since June 2017.
But small entered a well. Since his knockdown in the third round of the US Open ante Frances Tiafoe, last September, accumulates a record of just two wins and 14 losses (counting the one he suffered in the last edition of the Laver Cup, an exhibition tournament but which the ATP adds for its statistics). After his passage through New York, he closed 2022 -in which he confessed that he suffered anxiety attacks- with six consecutive falls.
At the start of this 2023, he has a 2-8 mark. He couldn’t even perform well in the South American tour of brick dust, in which he always got good results: he lost in his debut in Córdoba, Buenos Aires, Rio and Santiago de Chile.
“These have been difficult times. But I’m working hard, it’s the only thing I know how to do. It’s the only way I know,” he said after beating Coria in his Indian Wells debut, making it clear that, beyond the fact that the results weren’t appear, he is not willing to give up.
