What happened on Wednesday at the Universidad Católica sports center was nowhere near what happened 23 years ago at Parque O’Higgins, also in Santiago. Even if the memories appeared immediately. After losing his ATP 250 match in the Chilean capital in a third set tie break, Diego Schwartzman, in his words, had to leave the field with “six or seven security personnel” After “the amount of insults I received and that was brutal”. A point discussed at the end of the final set, a discussion with the coach of Nicholas Jarryhis opponent, and the constant boos from the public tormented an Argentinian who thus adds a new defeat to his already long and worrying series of defeats.

But in that April of 2000 everything went haywire. Even in a tennis match, of course. Even if for the Davis Cup. Chile and Argentina played. The previous week, the national team had beaten the Chileans in a qualifying match for the 2002 World Cup. A beer sponsored the series and had no better idea than to give it away among the 12,000 spectators. If anything could go very wrong, it was that night of April 7th.

Marcelo Ríos won the first point over Hernán Gumy and in the second, when Mariano Zabaleta defeated Nicolás Massú, the scandal broke. Everything was going downhill until a ball boy wanted to hide a bullet thrown at Tandil’s man. Zabaleta saw it, complained to the referee and people exploded. He has flown from all over. They started with coins. They’re done with the chairs. The father of the Argentine player was injured in the head. The team and the fans had to leave the stadium under police escort. Today there are those who say that the barra brava mixed with the people and caused a war never seen before in tennis. He was determined to play what remained of the match without an audience. Argentina didn’t want to know anything. Chile won and was sanctioned.

The images are not the same but they also happened in Santiago.