Schwartzman continues in free fall: he lost in the first round of the Phoenix Challenger

diego schwartzmann he can’t reverse his lazy moment. El Peque, 38th in the world, added another defeat in a poorly performing season when he crashed on his debut in the Phoenix Challengertournament for which he had received a special invitation after his early elimination from the Indian Wells Masters 1000. The porteño, second favorite, lost 7-5 and 6-3 to the Portuguese Bruno Borges80th in the table, and extended his losing streak into 2023, in which he barely managed to win two of the ten games he played.

After having a bye in the second round against Indian Wells Casper Ruud, has decided to accept the wild card of the Arizona Tennis Classic, a race that takes place on hard courts and offers $220,000 in prize money. His goal was to continue working and not lose the progress he had felt in recent weeks: he had taken good sensations from the ATP in Santiago de Chile, despite not being able to pass the first round, and had obtained his second victory of the year winning Federico Coria on 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 couldn’t do much against Borges, a rival he had never faced before and who surpassed him in just one hour and 26 minutes.

He small He will have to shake off his anger quickly and get back to training quickly, since he has another important appointment ahead of him, the Miami Masters 1000. In the Florida match, which will start next Wednesday, the porteño defends just 10 points, given that last year he had lost on his debut in the round of 16 with Thanasi Kokkinakis. Thus, he could make a good harvest if he manages to capture on the court the good sensations 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 has played in nearly seven years. His last participation in that circuit was in Montevideofrom 14 to 20 November 2016, when, placed in 58th place in the ATP ranking, he lifted the trophy – the eighth of his career – beating the Brazilian 6-4, 6-1 Rogerio Dutra Silva, then 103°. It was the end of a season in which they had won their first title (in early May, in Istanbul) and played another final, in October, in Antwerp.

The following year, the porteño began the ascent that led him to win three more titles (Rio de Janeiro 2018, Los Cabos 2019 and Buenos Aires 2021); submit Rafael Nadal, the undisputed King of brick dust, on his favorite surface, in Rome 2020; be a semifinalist in Roland Garros that same year; and to reach the eighth step of the world rankings. And also remain in the top 40 of the ranking uninterruptedly since June 2017.

But small entered a well. Since his knockdown in the third round of the US Open in view of Frances Tiafoe, last September, accumulates a record of just two victories and 14 defeats (counting the one suffered in the last edition of the Laver Cup, an exhibition tournament but which the ATP adds for its statistics). After passing through New York, he ended 2022 – in which he confessed to having suffered from anxiety attacks – with six consecutive crashes.

At the start of this 2023 has a score of 2-8. He also failed to perform well on Brick Dust’s South American tour, in which he always performed well: he lost debuts in Córdoba, Buenos Aires, Rio and Santiago de Chile.

“These have been tough times. But I’m working hard, it’s the only thing I know how to do. It’s the only way I know how,” he said after beating Coria in his Indian Wells debut, making it clear that, apart from beyond the fact that the results have not appeared, he is not willing to give up.