ATP pro reveals what he could’ve achieved in Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal’s absence ahead of career’s final tournament
Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, the two members of the legendary trio dominated on the tour for more than two decades.
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Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic (Image via X)
Diego Schwartzman reflected on his career ahead of his final tournament. He is set to play the Argentina Open in his hometown of Buenos Aires.
Schwartzman is confident that if he never faced Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic in Grand Slam tournaments, the outcome of his matches would’ve looked different. The Argentine could never beat Djokovic in the seven matches they played and holds a 1-11 head-to-head record versus Nadal.
I lost seven times in the second week of Grand Slam tournaments to Rafa or Nole. I was playing so well. If I didn’t have these guys in front of me, I think I could have gone even deeper in these tournaments. But I am proud that I never went down against these legends without a fight, and it is nice that fans still remember that.
Diego Schwartzman told the ATP Tour website
Schwartzman, the 32-year-old, whose best Grand Slam performance was when he reached the semifinals of 2020 Wimbledon, clinched eight career titles and achieved his career-best ranking of No.8 in October 2020. He is scheduled to lock horns with 7th seed Nicolas Jarry in the first round of the Argentina Open.
Schwartzman has met the Chilean six times and is 4-2 in the head-to-head encounter. But it’s Jarry who clinched the win in their last two clashes in Santiago and Shanghai.
Novak Djokovic explains what motivates him to continue playing tennis
Novak Djokovic’s biggest rivals, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have called time on their respective careers. But the Serb, even though he has hinted at retirement after his semifinal withdrawal at the Australian Open, explained what motivates him to keep showing up on tennis courts.
It is mainly because of the love for tennis, for sports. Secondly, there is also the fact that I think that through tennis I develop the most as a person, as strange as it may sound, but on the tennis court during a match, I go through a million emotions – some of the most beautiful, some of the worst, and doubts, and criticism, and ecstasy, pleasure, anger, rage, everything else.
Novak Djokovic said during an interview with Serbian media outlet Vijesti
Djokovic injured his hamstring during his campaign at the Melbourne Slam and threw the towel right after losing the first set of his semifinal clash with Alexander Zverev. Initially reports claimed that he would be back after a couple of months but the Serb, in that same interview, had declared that his injury was healed completely.
He said he would stick to his schedule. This means the 24-time Grand Slam champion will be flying to Doha for the ATP 500 Qatar Open to play the tournament for the first time since 2019. The Qatar Open is scheduled to start on February 17.
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Gouri Das
(4850 Articles Published)