Diego Schwartzman, with Clarín: “I punish myself because I don’t want to go back and I get angry with myself more than with the goals”

diego schwartzmann He’s not having a good tennis moment. He ended 2022 with a negative streak of six consecutive lossesstarted the year with physical problems and a 1-3 record (he won his only match on debut at the Australian Open) and last Monday left the top 30 of the chart (he’s 32) for the first time in more than five years.

Things are not going well for him on the pitch. But even if in the games you see him frowning, angry and scolding himself for many things, Peque doesn’t lose his smile. Nor the desire to continue working and look for a solution, a way to recover the good feelings. Although today I no longer enjoy playing tennis as before.

“It’s pretty obvious what I’m about to say, but when you don’t win, it’s hard to enjoy yourself. Today it costs a little more day by day, to make a good impression in the race or out, because things aren’t going very well. But here also lies the great challenge. Get that leads me to look for solutions and not lose the joy, the routine or the desire to do better “, she commented in a chat with clarionshortly after its debut in Open Argentinawhich will be this Thursday against the Spanish Bernabé Zapata.

And he added: “I’m training very well, but perhaps this is the difference I don’t have the security I had in key moments of the matches, when it was 4-4 or in a tie. In those moments when he stole points and won in embarrassing situations. From there, a lot of confidence was born in my game. I also think my opponents are reading my reality and my mistakes and are playing better against Diego who has been competing for the last few months. That’s where I have to come back strong.”

-Do you find it difficult to live with the criticisms that appear with negative streaks, especially on social networks?

-I get more angry with me than with the comments on the networks, because you understand a little how it works. Although it is true that I suffer a lot when I see how much these things affect people around me, my family. But you learn to live with it. And the truth is, when I was a kid, neither I nor anyone else thought I’d achieve everything I did. So what can I criticize about my career? Being 32nd in the world? It’s spectacular. I lost a tennis match, I’m not playing well… I hope I can do it again soon, but I think with everything I’ve achieved there is no room for criticism. Even if whoever wants to do it, do it.

-You recently said that you suffered from anxiety attacks last year. What was it like living in that situation?

-It wasn’t easy, even if they weren’t very serious attacks. Last year at different times I had cramps during matches. By the time 50 minutes or an hour of playing went by, my whole body felt cramped. It was difficult, because I didn’t know why the body reacted like this. In those moments you get a little more anxious and lose control a little. It happened to me in other situations off the pitch. I worked on it, I looked for solutions and today, beyond the fact that the results don’t happen, off the pitch, with my people and in my daily life, I’m spectacular. Maybe I need to be a little worse outside (laughs). Before, I was very isolated from everything when I was bad, because it brought me down, and when I was good, because I didn’t want to get out of the rut. Today I’m less isolated, but things aren’t working with my tennis. It’s all about finding the right combination.

– You were number eight in the world, you beat Nadal on clay, you reached the semifinals of a Grand Slam. Is knowing what you have to play with and competing at the highest level the great motivation to continue?

-Yes. When things don’t work out, I throw myself down a lot. I am the first to be punished. And sometimes I run into people who stop me and remind me of those results or say nice things to me and then I say: “Hey, where’s the problem?”. And there’s the problem. It’s like I said with the reviews. I was training with (Carlos) Alcaraz the other day and I messed it up by saying: “Look, in the last four years I’ve lost two games on this pitch”. And then I thought: “How is it that I’m so exhausted and lose track of the things I’ve achieved for a couple of bad months?”‘. But sometimes he gets into a vortex that doesn’t see it so clearly.

-And how strong is the desire to keep that place you earned among the best on the circuit?

-Very. You don’t want to keep that status, that level and that ranking. You want to keep holding it forever, until it no longer gives you. That’s why when I go down a little I punish myself a lot. Because I don’t want to leave there. I want to continue to belong and I don’t want to go back even half a step. I want to go home and there are no reproaches. But the most difficult thing is to maintain the ranking and the very high level for many years. My desire to make it happen is. It’s a great motivation. Let’s hope that the good level and good sensations on the pitch return. And I hope I can feel good about playing well again.

The desire is to reverse the losing streak

The Argentina Open will be Diego Schwartzman’s second tournament on the clay court tour of South America. Last week, in Córdoba, they fell on their debut against Juan Manuel Cerundolo, host of the organization, on a field and in conditions to which he cannot adapt well. The brick dust of Buenos Aires, on the other hand, is one of the Peque’s favorite settings. Because of this, he is deluded by power start reversing your bad moment during this week.

“This is a tournament in which I have always felt comfortable, since I was a child. Here I got my first ATP victory and I won the best title you can win as an Argentinian and that’s difficult when it comes to getting on the pitch. I hope those sensations, which I always feel when I play this tournament, will continue to exist on Thursday as well”, commented the porteño.

And he added: “Today we are evaluating very short-term goals. Get into the game, make fewer mistakes, be more solid and feel good again. In training I’m playing well; It remains to pass it to the field. It’s not easy, because the nerves and tensions of a game are very different from training, but I know I have the ability to do that. And I know that a game won can generate many very positive things. Let’s hope it happens here.”

Schwartzman, fourth favorite this season, has had a perfect presence in the tournament since making his debut in main design in 2013. He won the title in 2021, when he beat Francisco Cerúndolo in the deciding duel, and also reached the final in 2019 and 2022.