Diego Schwartzman came into the duel with Nole with rising confidence: he defeated Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in the third round. Photo: EFE/ Christophe Petit Tesson.
Argentine tennis player Diego Schwartzman will face an almost impossible challenge at Roland Garros when he faces Serbian Novak Djokovic, top seed and current French Grand Slam champion, in the round of 16 tomorrow.
“Little” Schwartzman, ranked 16th in the ATP world rankings, will face Djokovic (1) this Sunday before 8 (Argentina time) at the Suzanne Lenglen court of the Parisian complex located in the Bois de Boulogne, in a against to do. on television on ESPN and on the Star+ platform.
The match between the Argentine and Serbian is the second of the day that will start at 6 with a cross between Italian Martina Trevisan (59) and Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich (47).
The 29-year-old Argentine will try to beat for the first time a “Nole” who seems determined to retain the title and reach the number of 21 Grand Slams won, which will allow him to match the record holder, the Spaniard Rafael Nadal, and his Swiss pass Roger Federer, also include 20 “Majors” in his collection.
Schwartzman starred in Paris for his fourth round of 16 access at Roland Garros in the past five years, with high scores in the 2020 semifinals and in the 2021 quarterfinals, both times beaten by “Rafa” Nadal.
Novak Djokovic is champion in 2021 and wants to win his first Grand Slam of the year in Paris. Photo: Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP.
The tennis player who came out of Club Náutico Hacoaj showed performance from low to high during the week, with wins against Russian Andrey Kuznetsov (228) in four sets, and Spaniard Jaume Munar (87 ) in five sets, to put out his better version against Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (20), whom he beat in straight sets and gave up just six games, 6-3, 6-1 and 6-2.
Meanwhile, Djokovic had a flawless campaign with victories without giving up the set against Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan (99), Slovakian Alex Molcan (38) and Slovenian Aljaz Bedene (195).
In previous antecedents, the Balkans had everything to win, in fact he beat the Argentine six times face to face: US Open 2014, Roland Garros 2017, Rome 2019 and 2020 in the final, Australia 2020 and the same year in the stage team of masters played in London.
The winner of the match between Schwartzman and Djokovic will play in the quarterfinals against Spanish Rafael Nadal (5) or Canadian Félix Auger Aliassime (9).
“Rafa” Nadal, 13-time champion at Roland Garros, will face the Canadian this Sunday before 10 a.m. in the third shift of Philippe Chatrier’s central court schedule.
The other attractive matches he suggests on Sunday in Paris are those that Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz (6) will do with Russian Karen Khachanov (25) and German Alexander Zverev (3) against surprisingly Spaniard Bernabé Zapata Miralles (131), who crossed over to qualify and had the pleasure of winning three games.
In the case of Alcaraz, born in El Palmar, Murcia, 19 years ago, he was the main threat to Djokovic and Nadal on the way to the title, and preceded the important antecedents to the titles he won in Rio de Janeiro, Miami, Barcelona and Madrid, in a total of five in his career with one from Umag that he won in 2021.
The Spaniard, who has been the youngest tennis player to qualify for the round of 16 at Roland Garros since Djokovic in 2006 in his third round win over American Sebastian Korda, maintains a 19-1 record at the courts of brick dust in 2022. and will be presiding over the closing day tomorrow in Philippe Chatrier central court not before 2:00 pm
Source: Telam
Source: Clarin
