Diego Schwartzman

Personal life

Schwartzman is Jewish, and is the son of Ricardo and Silvana Schwartzman. He was born and resides in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His family had emigrated from Germany to Argentina. He has two brothers (one is a computer programmer, and the other is a travel agent), and a sister who is a lawyer.

Schwartzman's nickname is El Peque (“the small one”).

2010–13

In 2010 at the age of 17 he won the Bolivia F3 Futures (CL), and in 2011 he won the Chile F14 Futures (CL). In 2012, Schwartzman won titles at the Peru F2 Futures (CL), Argentina F11 Futures (CL), Argentina F14 Futures (CL), Argentina F20 Futures (CL), Argentina F21 Futures (CL), Argentina F22 Futures (CL), and Buenos Aires Challenger (CL). At the 2013 Australian Open, he lost in the final round of qualifying.

2014

Schwartzman made his first appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam event at the 2014 French Open; he came through qualifying before making it to the second round, where he lost to Roger Federer. He lost in the first round of the 2014 US Open to Novak Djokovic.

In the ATP Challenger Tour, he won four titles at Aix-en-Provence, Prague, Campinas, and San Juan. In the ATP Challenger Tour Finals, he won over João Souza, Simone Bolelli, and Guilherme Clezar to claim the title. At the end of 2014 he was ranked # 61 in the world.

2015

Schwartzman's best result of the season came at the 2015 Istanbul Open, where he reached the semifinals, beating former top-ten player Jurgen Melzer along the way. In the semis he faced tennis legend Roger Federer. Schwartzman won the first set decisively, before ultimately falling 7-5 in the final set. He was also part of the Argentine Davis Cup Team, which reached the semifinals in 2015.

2016: Istanbul Open championship

Schwartzman won his first-ever singles title at the 2016 Istanbul Open - an outdoor 250 clay court event. He impressively defeated established top player Grigor Dimitrov in the final, coming back to win 6-0 in the final set after losing the first set in a tie-break. Later, Dimitrov apologized for his behavior during the match, after he smashed three rackets, which ultimately led to a warning, a point penalty, and then another point penalty. The second and final point penalty came with Dimitrov down 5-0 and gave the game, set, and match to Schwartzman.

In October Schwartzman reached his second final at the 250 level, in Antwerp. He lost to Richard Gasquet 6-7, 1-6 in the final.

2017: US Open quarterfinals

Schwartzman reached the 3rd round of a Grand Slam at the 2017 French Open, where he faced Novak Djokovic. He managed to gain a 2-1 set lead, but eventually faded and Djokovic won in 5 sets.

In the Canadian Open the 24-year-old saved four match points to pull off a remarkable 4-6, 7-6(7), 7-5 upset of No. 3 seed Dominic Thiem (# 7 in the world), his first-ever win over a top-10 player. As of mid-August 2017, he was leading the ATP tour in winning percentage in return games at 36 per cent (192/532), with Nadal in second place and Djokovic in fourth place.

He defeated #5 seed and former US Open winner Marin Cilic (ranked # 5 in the world) for the biggest win of his career to date at the 2017 US Open on September 1. On September 3, he beat #16 ranked Lucas Pouille and reached a Major's quarter-finals for the first time in his career. At 5' 7", Schwartzman was the shortest Grand Slam tournament quarterfinalist since Jaime Yzaga, also 5' 7", at the 1994 U.S. Open. Schwartzman said: "It’s not just for the big guys here."