Diego Sebastián Schwartzman (, ; born 16 August 1992) is an Argentine former professional tennis player. He won four ATP Tour singles titles and reached his career-high singles ranking of world No. 8 in October 2020. As a clay court specialist, his best results were on this surface. He was noted for his high-quality return game."Diego Schwartzman’s Return Game Is Even Better Than I Thought," Heavy Topspin, 26 April 2017.Craig O'Shannessy (18 August 2017). "How Schwartzman Became The Return Giant In 2017," ATP World Tour.
When he reached the quarterfinals of the 2017 US Open, the Schwartzman was the shortest major quarterfinalist since the equally-tall Jaime Yzaga at the 1994 US Open. Schwartzman said: "It's not just for the big guys here."Ben Rothenberg (3 September 2017). "Diego Schwartzman Reaches U.S. Open Quarterfinal by Beating No. 16 Seed," The New York Times.
Schwartzman reached his first Masters final at the 2020 Italian Open, defeating defending champion and world No. 2, Rafael Nadal, en route. He lost to Novak Djokovic in the final. A month later, at the 2020 French Open, he defeated world No. 3 Dominic Thiem to reach his first major semifinal, the shortest man to do so since the American Harold Solomon at the 1980 French Open.
Early life Schwartzman is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, and is the son of Ricardo Sebastián and Silvana Schwartzman. He was born and resides in Buenos Aires, Argentina. During the Holocaust, his Polish-Jewish maternal great-grandfather was put on a train to a Nazi concentration camp. The coupling that connected two of the train's cars broke, allowing his great-grandfather and others inside one car to escape. His great-grandfather brought his family by boat from Germany to Argentina.Jack Milner (28 April 2017). "Hard work is paying off for Diego Schwartzman," South African Jewish Report. His father's ancestors emigrated from Russia to Argentina by boat.
Growing up, Schwartzman played tennis at Club Náutico Hacoaj, a Jewish-Argentine sports club in Buenos Aires that was established by and for Jews who were not allowed to join other sports clubs in the city in the early 20th century."Diego Vs. Goliath at the US Open," Tablet Magazine, 1 September 2019. At junior tournaments, Schwartzman often faced antisemitic catcalls. On the ATP Tour, he has endured less antisemitism, but at the 2017 US Open, a spectator shouted, "Jewish people are not allowed here" in the direction of Schwartzman.
Schwartzman's family owned a successful clothing and jewelry company. However, around the time Schwartzman was born, the family became quite poor because of the Argentine great depression. To afford the expenses of tennis, Schwartzman and his mother would sell bracelets at his junior tennis tournaments.
Schwartzman has two brothers (one a software developer, the other a travel agent) and a sister (a lawyer). Schwartzman's nickname is El Peque (an abbreviation of the word "pequeño", meaning "Shorty" in Spanish).
Career Junior career Schwartzman did not have an illustrious junior career and peaked at an ITF junior ranking of No. 217. At age 13, he began traveling across South America to play in junior tournaments. He saw success at that level and began receiving funding to pay for travel, equipment, and coaching expenses. The only junior Grand Slam he played in was the 2010 US Open, where he lost in the first round of qualifying.
2010–13 In 2010, at the age of 17, he won the Bolivia F3 Futures (CL), and in 2011 he won the Chile F14 Futures (CL)."Just 5'7" and 141 pounds, Diego Schwartzman stands tall in tennis," TENNIS, 1 September 2017. In 2012, Schwartzman won titles at the Peru F2 Futures (CL), Argentina F11 Futures (CL), Argentina F14 Futures (CL), Argentina F20 Futures (CL), Argentina F21 Futures (CL), Argentina F22 Futures (CL), and Buenos Aires Challenger (CL). At the 2013 Australian Open, he lost in the final round of qualifying.
2014: Four Challenger titles & ATP Challenger Tour Finals champion Schwartzman made his first appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam event at the French Open; he came through qualifying before making it to the second round, where he lost to Roger Federer. He lost in the first round of the US Open to Novak Djokovic.
He won four titles in the ATP Challenger Tour—at Aix-en-Provence, Prague, Campinas, and San Juan. In the Challenger Tour Finals, he won over João Souza, Simone Bolelli, and Guilherme Clezar to claim the title. At the end of the season, Schwartzman was ranked No. 61 worldwide.
2015: Davis Cup semifinals
Schwartzman's best result of the season came at the Istanbul Open, where he reached the semifinals, beating former top-ten player Jürgen Melzer along the way. He faced tennis legend Roger Federer in the semifinals. Schwartzman won the first set decisively before ultimately falling 7–5 in the final set. He was also part of the Argentine Davis Cup Team, which reached the semifinals in 2015.
2016: First ATP title
Schwartzman won his first-ever singles title at the Istanbul Open—an outdoor 250 clay court event. He impressively defeated established top player Grigor Dimitrov in the final, coming back to win 6–0 in the final set after losing the first set in a tie-break. Later, Dimitrov apologized for his behavior during the match after he smashed three rackets, which ultimately led to a warning, a point penalty, and another point penalty. The second and final point penalty came with Dimitrov down 5–0 and gave the game, set, and match to Schwartzman.
In October, Schwartzman reached his second final at the 250 level in Antwerp. He lost to Richard Gasquet, 6–7, 1–6. In 2016, he led all ATP players in the percentage of break points converted, at 46.6%.
2017: US Open quarterfinalist
Schwartzman reached the third round at the French Open, where he faced Novak Djokovic. He had a 2–1 set lead, but eventually, Djokovic won in five sets.
In the Canadian Open, the 25-year-old saved four match points to pull off a remarkable 4–6, 7–6, 7–5 upset of No. 3 seed Dominic Thiem, his first-ever win over a top-10 player. As of mid-August 2017, Schwartzman was leading the ATP Tour in winning percentage in return games at 36 percent (192/532), with Nadal in second place and Djokovic in fourth place.
On 1 September 2017, Schwartzman upset world No. 7 and fifth seed, Marin Čilić in the third round of the US Open to equal the biggest win of his career. On 3 September 2017, he beat world No. 20 and 16th seed, Lucas Pouille, in the fourth round to reach his first career major quarterfinal. In the quarterfinals, he lost to Pablo Carreño Busta.
Schwartzman's 2017 season proved to be the best of his career to that point. He finished the year ranked world No. 25; in addition to making his first major quarterfinal, he also made two quarterfinals at the Masters 1000 level. He won 39 singles matches and earned $1,536,000 over the course of the season, easily besting his previous records of 17 match wins and $441,000 in the 2016 season. In 2017, he led all ATP players in the percentage of second serve return points won (56.1%) and percentage of return games won (34.8%) while coming in third behind Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal in the percentage of first serve return points won (34.3%). Finally, he scored his first win over a top-10 player, and then just two weeks later, he racked up a second top-10 win.
2018: Second ATP title & Grand Slam quarterfinal, top 15 In his first 17 Grand Slam tournaments, Schwartzman had only reached the third round once. However, at the 2018 Australian Open, he advanced to the fourth round, where he played world No. 1, Rafael Nadal. For the first time in his career, Schwartzman made the second week at a major for the second consecutive time, following his quarterfinal showing at the 2017 US Open. Despite going into the match with an 0-3 head-to-head record, 0–7 in sets, Schwartzman took the second-set tiebreak 7–4 before eventually going down in four sets. By virtue of his performance, he reached a new career-high singles ranking of No. 24 on 29 January 2018."Kyle Edmund reaches career-high ranking after Australian Open heroics to close in on Andy Murray," Eurosport, 29 January 2018.
He then went on to capture the title at the Rio Open, an ATP 500-level clay tournament, defeating Fernando Verdasco 6–2, 6–3. The Rio Open marked the biggest title of Schwartzman's career thus far. He reached a new career-high singles ranking of No. 15 on 2 April 2018 and was the first Jewish male player to break into the singles top 20 since Nicolás Massú was ninth in 2004.Andrew Sherwood (26 February 2018). "Diego Schwartzman into world top 20 after winning Rio Open," Times of Israel."Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman reaches top 20 in world tennis rankings," Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 26 February 2018. At the French Open, Schwartzman made it into his second Grand Slam quarterfinal. He didn't drop a set on his run to the fourth round, where he faced sixth seed and world No. 7, Kevin Anderson, and won in just under four hours after coming back from two sets to love down for the first time in his career. Questioned by reporters as to how he defeated the 6’ 8″ Anderson, he replied: "Did you read David and Goliath?" In the quarterfinals, he took the first set from Rafael Nadal, but it started raining, and the match was postponed to the next day where Nadal won the following three sets.Ian Chadband (4 June 2018). "Schwartzman fights back in 'Diego and Goliath' clash" Roland Garros. Retrieved 5 June 2018 His quarterfinal showing marked his third consecutive Grand Slam tournament, where he made it to the second week of competition.
Schwartzman participated in only two grass court events in 2018; they included the Eastbourne International and Wimbledon. Although Schwartzman was the No. 1 seed, he fell in three sets in the first round to Mirza Bašić. At Wimbledon, Schwartzman scored his first career grass-court win by defeating Mirza Bašić in straight sets before falling in the second round to Jiří Veselý.
Schwartzman reached the quarterfinals of the 2018 German Open but fell to eventual finalist Leonardo Mayer in three sets. In 2018 he was second to Nadal among all ATP players in the percentage of second-serve return points won (55.8%) and percentage of return games won (30.7%).
2019: Third ATP title, Masters singles & Major doubles semifinals
At the Australian Open, Schwartzman defeated Rudolf Molleker in four sets and American Denis Kudla in a five-set thriller. He was knocked out in the third round by former Wimbledon finalist, Tomáš Berdych.
Schwartzman then competed in the Córdoba Open, making the quarterfinals. He went on to make the finals at the Argentina Open, an ATP 250-level clay tournament. On his way to the finals, Schwartzman defeated world No. 8, Dominic Thiem, 2–6, 6–4, 7–6 but he lost in straight sets to Marco Cecchinato in the finals. Schwartzman was unable to defend his title at the Rio Open, retiring in the second set with a right leg injury in the first round.
At the 2019 Mutua Madrid Open as an unseeded pair, Schwartzman reached his first Masters 1000 final in doubles partnering Dominic Thiem, where they lost to Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecău. He defeated world No. 6, Kei Nishikori, 6–4, 6–2 in the quarterfinals of the Italian Open before being defeated by Djokovic in three sets.
At the 2019 French Open partnering compatriot Guido Pella also as an unseeded pair, he reached his first Grand Slam doubles semifinal losing to eventual champions the German pair of Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies. In singles, he lost to another fellow Argentine Leonardo Mayer in the second round.
Schwartzman then captured the title at the 2019 Los Cabos Open, defeating Taylor Fritz in the final, 7–6(8–6), 6–3. It marked his first-ever title at a hard-court tournament and third ATP title.