Diego Schwartzman’s confession after the elimination at the Argentine Open: “If I don’t win I don’t know how long I can prolong it”

It hurt a lot Diego Schwartzmann the defeat in three sets against the Colombian Daniele Galanwho left him out of the Argentina Open debuting for the second consecutive year. She hurt him not only because he said goodbye too quickly to a tournament in which he has experienced great joy in the past and in which he feels at home. But he also hurt him because that 2-6, 6-1 and 6-4 against a rival from the qualifiers did nothing but aggravate the crisis that the Not much, now 116th in the rankings, has been alive for a couple of seasons. And after that hard blow, he opened his heart and acknowledged that, if things don’t change, he may be headed for the end of his career.

“If some victories don’t appear, at least to enjoy myself a little more on the pitch, I don’t know how long I’ll be able to extend. I’m very clear about it. We’ll see in the next few months how I’m doing. “It’s very difficult for me when during the competition the things go wrong. For me and my team, because day by day it is a very big effort. There’s a month and a half tour and a two month tour coming up. And supporting myself mentally with results like the ones I’m having is complicated”he commented with a more serious face than usual.

And he continued: “The truth is that there is little petrol in the tank. When you start the year you are always excited, especially because we Argentinians practically start the tour close to home. For the second consecutive year we are doing badly, still losing in the first round and with very good rivals, but who at a certain level I could have beaten, and playing badly for many moments… It’s difficult for me, I think it has already been difficult for me to support him with such negative results for about a year. So, being able to imagine the next few months like this, if good results don’t start to appear, it will cost me. The truth is, it will cost me.”.

Schwartzman, who entered the scene thanks to aa wild card of the organization, extended its weak start to the year. It didn’t pass qually From Brisbane and of Australian Open. He fell last week on his debut in Cordoba. And now he has taken a hard blow in a tournament where he was champion once (2021) and finalist two more times (2019 and 2022) and said goodbye to Buenos Aires without a win for the second consecutive year. In 2023, fourth favourite, he starts in the round of 16 and fails to beat the Spaniard Bernabe Zapata Miralles.

“I swear to you that I don’t know what the reason for this bad moment is. Otherwise maybe I wouldn’t do this. It’s a combination of everything, from the moment in which the body has to carry more ball and not the goal; or in which I have to play with a little ‘ more power to make the opponent uncomfortable, but I can’t… At different moments of the match different problems appear that make me hurt, “he reflected.

“At the end of last year I had won matches and also players who were in the top ten (Editor’s note: Taylor Fritz, world number eight, in the third round of the Shanghai Masters 1000, for example). And this year I was kind of excited to be able to play well again, but it’s tough,” she added.

Tuesday’s defeat against Galán, however, left him with something positive: the love of the people.

“I appreciate the way people treated me. Sometimes they got a little more angry when I came in a better ranking. Today I feel more support to try to help me get out of the bad sporting moment and for this I will always be grateful to them “Also for this reason we always try a little harder. Against Galán it was evident: I played a few more games simply because I was at home, because without that help it’s difficult to resist,” he said.

And he closed: “That’s why I also have a mixture of sadness and anger. When you lose at home it’s very sad. Especially in a place where I’ve done so well so many times, in a place where four times in a row – five” counting the times Córdoba- I arrived at the weekend. Losing two years in a row in the first round to your people is a bit tricky, so we’ll see how far I can push myself like this.”