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ATPWorldTour.com challenges Argentine player to create his own 'dream team'
Diego Schwartzman has a special connection to soccer. The Argentine, who is through to the third round at Roland Garros, was named after soccer legend Diego Maradona. Growing up in Argentina, soccer was more than just a sport -- it was a way of life.
"Soccer was the sport I wanted to pursue," said Schwartzman, who is seeded 11th at Roland Garros. "I made the right decision to choose tennis over soccer as a career choice because I'm a better tennis player than I am a soccer player, but I've always been in love with soccer, like most Argentinians are.
"My friends and brothers would play soccer on the weekends and go eat some barbecue food afterward. I wanted to fit in, so I played soccer. Argentina and soccer go hand-in-hand."
Schwartzman considers himself a soccer aficionado and knows the history behind Diego Maradona, the Boca Juniors star who captained his country to victory over West Germany at the 1986 World Cup.
"I have a good relationship with Maradona," Schwartzman said. "He says what he feels and he keeps it 'real' so to speak. What you see is what you get with Maradona. He's an asset to all Argentinian athletes.
"He's got a sense of humor, too. Before, he’d say 'hey Dieguito [little Diego], say hello to big Diego.' When I reached the quarter-finals at the US Open last year [l. to Carreno Busta], he told me I no longer go by Dieguito. From that point on, I'm also big Diego."
ATPWorldTour.com challenged Schwartzman to create his own "dream team" ahead of the World Cup, which kicks off on 14 June.
"Ouch, that's tough," Schwartzman said. Still, he wasted little time listing his ideal squad of soccer players:
Goalkeeper: Manuel Neuer (Germany)
Defensive rightback: Kyle Walker (England)
Centrebacks: Nicolas Otamendi (Argentina), Sergio Ramos (Spain)
Left winger: Marcelo (Brazil)
Midfielders: Sergio Busquets (Spain), Toni Kroos (Germany), Andres Iniesta (Spain)
Forwards: Lionel Messi (Argentina), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Neymar (Brazil)
"When it comes to naming my 'once ideal,' it's no sweat -- until I have to choose the midfielders," Schwartzman said. "The pool is deep when it comes to selecting players in the midfield; there's so much talent to choose from in that position.”
How about his choices of tennis players to fill soccer positions? Schwartzman had his own list for that as well.
Goalkeeper: Leonardo Mayer. "He can tend to goal because he's really good at blocking shots."
Right winger: Damir Dzumhur. "He's lightning quick."
Centrebacks: Dusan Lajovic, Fernando Verdasco. "I would want someone big and strong like Lajovic, and a competent left-footed player like the Spaniard."
Left winger: Horacio Zeballos. "We kicked the ball around one time back in Argentina and that's the position he played."
Central defensive midfielder: Himself. "I'd put myself in that position. I play like a No. 5; I run a lot and I'm a workhorse."
Attacking midfielder: Rafael Nadal. "Rafa is my pick for that role. He would lead the offensive charge with authority."
Right midfielder: Roger Federer. "You can't possibly leave Roger out of a dream team, right?"
Left midfielder: Novak Djokovic. "Nole is a natural for that position.”
Forwards: Dominic Thiem, Juan Martin del Potro. "Thiem’s game is suited for an attacking position. And Delpo is strong, tall ... he can command aerial attacks."
And for the ultimate question: Who is the better soccer player, Diego Maradona or Lionel Messi?
"It's a tie," Schwartzman said. "You don't need to choose one over the other. Both are great players and two of the best soccer players that Argentina has ever produced."

Diego Schwartzman has a new goal for the year, following his performance at Roland Garros. The Argentine star has his sights set on a place in the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings.

“If I put the target now, it's try to keep improving and try to be close to the Top 10,” admitted Schwartzman, after his quarter-final defeat to Rafael Nadal on Thursday. “When I started the year, it was not a goal for me. Now maybe, yes.”

The 5’7” Argentine will climb to a career-best No. 11 on Monday, a remarkable rise up the ATP Rankings from No. 41 at Roland Garros last year. In 2016, Schwartzman was No. 63.

Should Schwartzman break into the elite group, joining No. 6-ranked Juan Martin del Potro, it would mark the first time that two Argentines rank in the Top 10 since the week of 29 October 2012 (Del Potro, Juan Monaco).

Schwartzman did not win a match during last year’s grass-court swing, putting him in good position to gain ATP Rankings points in an effort to become the first player since Harold Solomon (5’6”), in the week of 27 July 1981, to stand 5’7” or shorter and place in the Top 10.



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The 25-year-old Schwartzman sent shockwaves through Roland Garros on Wednesday, when the No. 11 seed took the opening set against Nadal, snapping the World No. 1’s streak of 37 consecutive sets won at the clay-court major championship — an accomplishment that motivates him to push forward.

“I have never entered a court just to enjoy the match. I was always wanting to win,” said Schwartzman. “The first matches I played against the Top 5 players, I said it's always a match I can win. And so it's a learning phase, and I know that I will have more and more chances of winning when I play my matches. I know that the game and the ranking says that I'm in a position where I'm capable of winning against them, and so I have to win the next time I play against him.”

On Thursday though, there was not much that Schwartzman could do against the 10-time Roland Garros champion. Nadal was at his aggressive best, controlling the baseline upon the match’s resumption after rain halted play late in the second set Wednesday, to sweep the next three sets.

Reflecting on the loss, Schwartzman said, “It's not good. It's not good. I think is the worst part of the tennis, playing against Rafa here when he's playing his best tennis. Many, many points today I was playing really good, aggressive. He was running all the time, and then he came back [in] the point and finished with a winner… it’s not [a] good part of tennis, to play against Rafa in his best tennis.”

The Argentine, who according to Infosys ATP Scores & Stats won the highest rate of return games on the ATP World Tour in 2017, struck an impressive 20 winners in the first set. But Nadal adjusted accordingly, playing more aggressively, especially changing directions to keep Schwartzman on the defensive.

“He has the best mindset of history,” said Schwartzman. “He's one of the best players in history. He doesn't know what frustration is. And despite losing the first set, the first 40 minutes, he came back as if nothing had happened before. Sometimes these are talents that very few players have in the world.

“I was playing fantastically. I was winning his serve. He was not in confidence, and I was able to attack and to dominate most of the points. I had a lot of winners. But I think that the match was totally different today because everything was in his favour.”

Carreno Busta battles through final-set tie-break

Second-seeded Argentine Diego Schwartzman earned a confidence boosting victory over #NextGenATP Norwegian wild card Casper Ruud 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 in two hours and six minutes on Monday at the German Tennis Championships presented by Kampmann.

Schwartzman, who had lost four of his past five matches, recovered from a slow start and saved four break points in the final game to record his 18th clay-court match win of the season (26-16 overall). The World No. 12, who will next meet qualifier Daniel Masur, clinched his second ATP World Tour crown in February at the Rio Open presented by Claro (d. Verdasco). Masur recorded his first tour-level win over fellow German Maximilian Marterer 6-3, 6-4.

Schwartzman's compatriot Leonardo Mayer, the 2014 and 2017 champion, swept past Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-3, 6-2 in 83 minutes and will next face France’s Gael Monfils or sixth-seeded Italian Marco Cecchinato, last week’s titlist at the Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag (d. Pella).


Third seed Pablo Carreno Busta also battled through on the first day of play, overcoming 2017 runner-up Florian Mayer 2-6, 6-1, 7-6(4) after two hours, 12 minutes. The Spaniard, competing in Hamburg for the first time since his debut in 2014, ousted the German wild card by the thinnest of margins. He took a 3/0 lead in the final-set tie-break, and would not look back from there.

Carreno Busta will next face Slovenian Aljaz Bedene or Swiss Henri Laaksonen. Bedene has won two of his three FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings against Carreno Busta, while the Spaniard has not faced Laaksonen.

Did You Know?
Schwartzman, 25, has won both of his ATP World Tour titles on clay courts - in May 2016 at the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open (d. Dimitrov) and earlier this year in Rio de Janeiro. His two runner-up finishes have come on hard courts at the European Open in October 2016 and 2017.

Monteiro advances to second quarter-final of the year

Diego Schwartzman recorded his 25th match win of the season (25-16) by beating German qualifier Daniel Masur 6-2, 6-2 on Wednesday for a place in the quarter-finals of the German Tennis Championships presented by Kampmann. With two breaks of serve in each set of the 80-minute encounter, second seed Schwartzman now faces two-time champion and fellow Argentine Leonardo Mayer. Schwartzman won the biggest title of his career in February at the Rio Open presented by Claro (d. Verdasco).

Mayer, who beat Germany's Florian Mayer in last year’s Hamburg final, recorded his first win in four FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings against Gael Monfils of France in a 6-1, 7-5 victory over 80 minutes.

Earlier in the day, Brazilian lucky loser Thiago Monteiro scraped past eighth seed Fernando Verdasco of Spain 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 in two hours and 12 minutes to reach his second quarter-final of the year (also Ecuador Open semi-finals). Verdasco had beaten Monteiro in the Argentina Open first round in February.

Second-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet was forced to pull out of the tournament on Wednesday due to a left hip injury. Chile’s Nicolas Jarry advances to the quarter-final.

Carreno Busta, Hugues-Herbert also advance
Diego Schwartzman played one of his best matches in months on Monday to start the Rogers Cup in Toronto. The 11th-seeded Argentine sped past top Brit Kyle Edmund 6-1, 6-2 in only 61 minutes, never facing a break point and winning almost 60 per cent of his second-serve points.

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Schwartzman made his second Grand Slam quarter-final in June in Paris (2017 US Open), before falling to eventual champion Rafael Nadal. But Schwartzman has reached only one quarter-final since then, at the German Tennis Championships 2018 presented by Kampmann in Hamburg two weeks ago.


Schwartzman, who will next meet American Sam Querrey or Adrian Mannarino of France, is looking to back up his quarter-final run of a year ago (l. to Haase) at the Rogers Cup in Montreal. "I prefer hard courts because my game fits better here because of my serve, because of my defense," he said. "I feel great here, and I hope to have a great tournament."

Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta advanced to the second round when Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka retired after losing the first set 6-0. The 12th-seeded Carreno Busta will next face Serbian Filip Krajinovic, a finalist at the Rolex Paris Masters last year, or Karen Khachanov of Russia.

French qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert set a second-round date with top American and eighth seed John Isner by beating Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Elsewhere, Frenchman Benoit Paire broke four times to beat 2017 Next Gen ATP Finals qualifier Jared Donaldson 6-3, 6-4 in 70 minutes. The World No. 55 will next play top seed Rafael Nadal, against whom he has never won a set in three FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings.