Argentine tennis player Diego Schwartzmann will face Australian Alexei Popyrin and his compatriot today Federico Coria The Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, in the matches of the second round of the US Open, fourth and last Grand Slam of the year played in New York.

“Little” Schwartzman, ranked 16th in the ATP world rankings, will play no earlier than 15:00 (Argentine time) against Popyrin (84) on court number 11 of the Billie Jean King Tennis Center complex, in the Queen’s neighborhood of New York.

The 30-year-old Argentine showed up in New York in the early hours of last Wednesday with a 3-6, 5-7, 6-0, 1-0 win against local Jack Sock (107) and left with a lumbar injury, while Popyrin (84) prevailed without frightening the Chinese Chun Hsin Tseng (89).

In the event of a settlement in the third round, Schwartzman will play in that case against the American tennis player Frances Tiafoe (26) or the Australian Jason Kubler (109).

Rosario Coria (78), for her part, will play no earlier than 2.30 pm at Arthur Ashe’s headquarters against the “top ten” Alcaraz (4), on a day that will be televised by ESPN and the Star + platform.

Coria beat Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor (46) in the opening round last Tuesday and if he makes the big surprise against Alcaraz, he will then have local Jenson Brooksby (43) or Croatian Borna Coric (29) in the third round.

Thursday will see Argentine tennis players in action in the doubles draw: Pedro Cachín and Francisco Cerúndolo will face Americans Christopher Eubanks and Bryan Shelton, while Andrés Molteni and Mexican Santiago González will face Australians Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell

For his part, Bell Ville Cordovan Pedro Cachín (66) confirmed that he had the best year of his career and settled yesterday for the first time in the third round of a Grand Slam.

The Cordovan born in Bell Ville 27 years ago has left Slovenian Aljaz Bedene (347) and local Brandon Holt (303), both winners in five sets, and will play again tomorrow against Frenchman Corentin Moutet (112).

In the only precedent, Cordovan lost this year to the French in the Lyon Challenger final.

In case of passage to the round of 16, Cachín, this year champion of four Challengers (in Madrid, Prague, Todi and Santo Domingo), will play in that case against the Norwegian Casper Ruud (7) or the American Tommy Paul (34 ). ).

Nadal against Fognini

Three years after his last title, Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal returned to the US Open on Tuesday with a long win against Australian Grand Slam rookie Rinky Hijikata.

Nadal, number three of the ATP, gave up an unusual first set against Hijikata (198th) but stopped the rebellion on his tracks by winning 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 and 6-3 and celebrating it with the crowd on the Flushing Meadows court plant (New York).

“I am very happy, it has been a long way. For a while I thought I would not be able to return but here I am,” said the Spaniard, out of the tournament in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and last year due to an injury.

In pursuit of his 23rd Grand Slam trophy, which would take him away from the absent Novak Djokovic (21), Nadal recognized he needed to win by shooting after playing and losing just one match from the abdominal injury he sustained in June at Wimbledon. .

“I was a little nervous. First game in New York in three years,” he acknowledged. “I had a hard time but then I think I played better. It wasn’t perfect, my second game in about 50 days. It wasn’t the day to play perfect but to get the job done and that’s what I did.”

New York fans received a huge ovation for the Spaniard, who hadn’t enjoyed the game since the frantic 2019 final that won Russian Daniil Medvedev in five sets.

The 36-year-old Spaniard has big goals ahead of him in New York if he manages to complete a dream season in which he won all 20 of his Grand Slam games, lifting the Australian Open and Roland Garros trophies.

It is also in his hands to equal a record (in the Open era) of five US Open trophies and even take the ATP number one to Medvedev, but to do so he must prevent the recurrence of the injury that forced him to leave before the semifinals. of Wimbledon.

An old acquaintance awaits Nadal in the second round, Fabio Fognini. The Italian, number 60 of the ATP, has fallen in 13 of the 17 games against Nadal but at the US Open he still remembers the defeat inflicted on the Spaniard in the third round of 2015, recovering two sets against.

This year’s US Open will distribute a record number of prizes between the ATP and WTA tables totaling $ 60,100,000.

The US Open champions, both male and female, will receive $ 2,600,000, more than the other three “majors” awarded: the Australian Open awarded $ 2,071,064, Roland Garros $ 2,290,354 and Wimbledon $ 2.507. .460 US currency.