What is wrong with Diego Schwartzman?

K

Kralingen

Bionic Poster
Most tennis fans have a soft spot for the 5’7” Argentinian with the magic feet and never-say-die attitude. One of the all time best at making the most of his tennis despite diminutive height, Schwartzman is not just a fun outlier, he has been a legitimately good tennis player, especially on clay. Since his breakthrough in 2017 which saw him lead Djokovic 2-1 in the French Open and lead the ATP in return game win%, Schwartzman has been a top 20 player with QF runs in the USO, AO, and peaked on clay last year, beating Nadal in the Rome SF and reaching the French Open SF. He was top 8 in 2020 and reached the ATP Year end Finals.

At age 28, he and Thiem have had extremely dismal clay seasons. Here are Schwartzman’s clay results since Monte Carlo:

MC Round 1: L 3-6, 3-6 to Casper Ruud

Barcelona: wins over Moutet/Tiafoe, L in 3 sets to Carreno Busta

Madrid Round 2: L 6-2, 4-6, 1-6 to Karatsev

Rome Round 2: L 1-6, 3-6 to Auger-Aliassime

Lyon Round 1: L 3-6, 5-7 to Gasquet

He’s 2-5 and against Gasquet and Auger Aliassime made over 20 UEs. Reeling right now and unable to find any service consistency or the game that saw him beat Rafa and Thiem last year on clay. What is wrong with him? Is he at all a contender at RG?
 
Kralingen said:
Most tennis fans have a soft spot for the 5’7” Argentinian with the magic feet and never-say-die attitude. One of the all time best at making the most of his tennis despite diminutive height, Schwartzman is not just a fun outlier, he has been a legitimately good tennis player, especially on clay. Since his breakthrough in 2017 which saw him lead Djokovic 2-1 in the French Open and lead the ATP in return game win%, Schwartzman has been a top 20 player with QF runs in the USO, AO, and peaked on clay last year, beating Nadal in the Rome SF and reaching the French Open SF. He was top 8 in 2020 and reached the ATP Year end Finals.

At age 28, he and Thiem have had extremely dismal clay seasons. Here are Schwartzman’s clay results since Monte Carlo:

MC Round 1: L 3-6, 3-6 to Casper Ruud

Barcelona: wins over Moutet/Tiafoe, L in 3 sets to Carreno Busta

Madrid Round 2: L 6-2, 4-6, 1-6 to Karatsev

Rome Round 2: L 1-6, 3-6 to Auger-Aliassime

Lyon Round 1: L 3-6, 5-7 to Gasquet

He’s 2-5 and against Gasquet and Auger Aliassime made over 20 UEs. Reeling right now and unable to find any service consistency or the game that saw him beat Rafa and Thiem last year on clay. What is wrong with him? Is he at all a contender at RG?
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his new woman is draining him of his lifeforce. he has nothing left......

Lifeforce_traycard_BSXCD8822_1024x1024.jpg
 
Yeah top 15-30 but just not top 10 material. We all jumped on the hype train after Rome last year but let’s have some realistic expectations for the guy.
 
yokied said:
Yeah top 15-30 but just not top 10 material. We all jumped on the hype train after Rome last year but let’s have some realistic expectations for the guy.
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For me the Thiem/Diego decline illustrates an underrated part of the “weak era” argument - 2017-2021 are undoubtedly the weakest clay years of the ATP tour in the last 25 years. Aside from Djokovic (who dealt with injuries and also lost to Thiem twice at RG) there has been no one even within miles of a declined Nadal on clay. Who even is a clay challenger these days? Tsitsipas and Zverev have shown promise, but no other player born after 1993 has made a French Open SF or won a clay Masters aside from them. It’s not just Nadal’s dominance at play here, there is a serious dearth of dirtballers.

Which young player actually has titles on this surface? Garin? Ruud? Maybe Sinner and Korda can build off their FO runs last year. For now I worry that the clay field is at an all time low. The lack of competition is much more pronounced than on Hard or Grass.
 
Kralingen said:
For me the Thiem/Diego decline illustrates an underrated part of the “weak era” argument - 2017-2021 are undoubtedly the weakest clay years of the ATP tour in the last 25 years. Aside from Djokovic (who dealt with injuries and also lost to Thiem twice at RG) there has been no one even within miles of a declined Nadal on clay. Who even is a clay challenger these days? Tsitsipas and Zverev have shown promise, but no other player born after 1993 has made a French Open SF or won a clay Masters aside from them. It’s not just Nadal’s dominance at play here, there is a serious dearth of dirtballers.

Which young player actually has titles on this surface? Garin? Ruud? Maybe Sinner and Korda can build off their FO runs last year. For now I worry that the clay field is at an all time low. The lack of competition is much more pronounced than on Hard or Grass.
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After reading this, I will not be able to look at Nadal the same way I did before.
 
Sudacafan said:
After reading this, I will not be able to look at Nadal the same way I did before.
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I remain convinced that if Nadal doesn't suffer a serious injury he will win at least 3 more RGs and continue to clean up on clay. Even if he binned the rest of the season just to focus on clay I think he will be able to beat weak competition until age 38 or so.
Can you say the same about Djokovic? Medvedev, Berrettini, and Rublev are all significantly better on hard than clay. Big servers like Raonic and Hurkacz are able to pull off long runs in Masters tournaments on hard and have zero chance at anything clay. It's why I have a sneaking suspicion the Bull ends up as the Slam champ at the end of their careers, as the true vulture of NextGen imo.
 
Nothing. He's a very solid player surrounded by very solid players. He's had his "moments" - 3 Slam QF and a SF in a few years. That's fantastic, but there's nothing about his game which suggests that we should expect that every time he enters a Slam. It could happen again, or not -- look at his other Slam results - other than a couple 4R, it's a lot of early losses - so maybe it won't. Great competitor, but physical and game limitations. I would expect nothing but "up and down" from a player like him. He just happens to be semi-down right now.
 
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FlamingCheeto said:
Michael Chang, don't listen to google he's really 5'6"
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No he's not. I'm 5'9 and have stood shoulder to shoulder with him and he was very, very slightly shorter than me, if not the same height. I followed Michael since he was a junior. Agassi is the one who fudged on his height, listing himself at 5'11 when he was 5'10. Anyone claiming Chang was 5'6 is on heavy drugs, simply lying or just uninformed.
 
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I think Diego enjoys his tennis life. To me he comes off as someone who works/plays hard but doesn't put pressure on himself to try and achieve a number 1 ranking or win a Grand Slam title. He competes well and knows his limits. He'll welcome it if it happens, but he doesn't seem to be looking for it. It appears to himself, he's a success. He's already a millionaire in his twenties, gets to travel all around the world, and is a sports celebrity in his country. Oh, and did I say he has a model-girlfriend?
 
BeatlesFan said:
No he's not. I'm 5'9 and have stood shoulder to shoulder with him and he was very, very slightly shorter than me, if not the same height. I followed Michael since he was a junior. Agassi is the one who fudged on his height, listing himself at 5'11 when he was 5'10. Anyone claiming Chang was 5'6 is on heavy drugs, simply lying or just uninformed.
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I would prefer to believe that people who claim that Chang is 5’6” are just simply lying or uninformed.
 
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Diablo XP said:
OMG! 5'7" my ass. That guy is like 5'3"- 5"4"..........IF THAT
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I think the guys who are 5’9” (see left) are about the only ones telling the truth. Everyone else is sneaking in an inch, two, three or four. And god knows why they think that number on a page means anything.
 
yokied said:
I think the guys who are 5’9” (see left) are about the only ones telling the truth. Everyone else is sneaking in an inch, two, three or four. And god knows why they think that number on a page means anything.
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Lol, 'telling the truth' ? Surely their height, etc. gets measured by ATP, right ?
 
Kralingen said:
For me the Thiem/Diego decline illustrates an underrated part of the “weak era” argument - 2017-2021 are undoubtedly the weakest clay years of the ATP tour in the last 25 years. Aside from Djokovic (who dealt with injuries and also lost to Thiem twice at RG) there has been no one even within miles of a declined Nadal on clay.
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The TennisTV commentators during the Madrid final (that I just got round to watching) triggered me into next week discussing Zod’s record Vs top 10. We all knew it was bad, but Jesus. At masters level he’s circa 13 out of 22, but at majors is 0 of 9.

Between Zod and Tim, it’s hard to know who to be angrier at for their hideous underachievement. Tsits just isn’t that good, certainly not peak-wise, so I’m a bit more realistic about his threat level. But if it does end up being Tsits that finally does the damage then it just makes the Tim-Zod underachievement worse. Tim with a brain and Zod with some balls have some serious game that should be enough to retire the ageing big 3.

Rafa’s barely able to get to a lot of standard balls. He is sliding in and just getting a FH defensive slice away on a lot of them and people still aren’t approaching and finishing off points against him. Fed making the RG semi straight out of the gate at 45.5 after years off told us all we needed to know.

Kralingen said:
I remain convinced that if Nadal doesn't suffer a serious injury he will win at least 3 more RGs and continue to clean up on clay. Even if he binned the rest of the season just to focus on clay I think he will be able to beat weak competition until age 38 or so.
Can you say the same about Djokovic?
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Med’s grit has been the only redeeming quality of the vaguely serious HC tennis lately, at least up until the actual major finals. It has made the nexgen fist pumps and trollery easier to forget. But he’s not even close to having the complete game or the true killer instinct to put down Novak. Nobody else has emerged that can beat the field, but Novak is looking shakier and shakier against the field. I can’t see Med or anyone else taking the reins on HC from Novak before 2023 at the earliest. Grass is worse.

BTW ease up on the calm, sensible poasts mate. It’s just not welcome around here, especially when we’re discussing the dismal vista of Djokodal dominance remaining for the next few years.
 
Jokervich said:
When you're as rich as these guys, of course you can bag a hot gf. Now whether that gf actually likes you or just your money is a different matter altogether.
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It's not just about being rich, it's about being good at something.

Women like that too, even better than money in most cases.
 
Silverbullet96 said:
Lol, 'telling the truth' ? Surely their height, etc. gets measured by ATP, right ?
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Don't believe so. Even boxer's and MMA guys have been known to exaggerate height while weight is strictly measured by the governing body. Look at the wildly varying heights reported for Opelka.
 
MichaelNadal said:
Lil pimp!!



Yeah he definitely is bc I'm 5'7 and there's no way he's my height lol
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He is laughing at most of us with his hot GF.
I think he's 5'7. Fedalovic look average height on court but they are bigger than most of us. Agassi, Hewitt or Evans resemble the average human height but they don't look big on court. Also tennis players are getting bigger than ever before. That makes short guys like Diego appear much shorter.
 
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