Diego Schwartzman has spent his life proving “the experts” wrong. When he was a kid, everyone told him that he was too small to play tennis, that he'd never be able to play the sport at the highest level. But Schwartzman kept prodding along in Buenos Aires, eventually winning ITF Futures titles and ATP Challenger Tour crowns.
These days, tennis prognosticators and player development programs routinely dismiss players of Schwartzman's size, 5-foot-7. Today's tennis is a power game, they say, one that favors taller players with big serves and powerful weapons.
But Schwartzman has none of the above, and yet here is, at a career-high ranking of No. 33 and playing in the fourth round of the US Open for the first time. Schwartzman, the 29th seed, upset 2014 champion and fifth seed Marin Cilic on Friday and will face 16th seed Lucas Pouille of France on Sunday for a spot in the quarterfinals.
The 25-year-old Schwartzman admits his serve is very regular, and stats back his assessment. During the past 52 weeks, no one on the ATP World Tour has lost their serve more than Schwartzman, who holds only 69 percent of the time. John Isner, the tour's top server, wins 92 percent of his service games.
“I know my serve is not always working as I want,” Schwartzman said.
But his return game more than accounts for what his serve lacks. In the past year, only world No. 2 and 2012 US Open champion Andy Murray has broken more often than Schwartzman, who breaks 35 percent of the time. Novak Djokovic, a legendary returner, and world No. 1 Rafael Nadal break less often, 34 percent and 32 percent, respectively.
“I always try to improve [my return] because I am small. I am the smallest guy in this tournament, I think, and I need to do it well because if I'm not, it's really tough for me,” Schwartzman said. “It's not easy for me. I need to return every game, try to play every point."
The 29th seed broke 14 times in his first two matches, fifth best in the men's field. He's won more than half of the points that have started on his opponent's racquet. “I have a good smile when I do a good return,” Schwartzman said.
Juan Ignacio Chela, Schwartzman's coach and compatriot, said Schwartzman's ability to read the direction of serves, his quick first step and his short backswing help him lead the tour.
“I'm very calm when he's returning because he knows he's one of the best in the world,” Ignacio Chela told USOpen.org.
Before facing Tipsarevic, Schwartzman was reciting his world-leading stats to his coach. “He told me, 'I break 78 percent of the time when I go up against the server love-30. I almost always break when the opponent starts love 30,'” Chela said. “He has it on his mind, and I'm really confident with his return.”
They still work on Schwartzman's serve, but Chela knows that, because of his player's size, that part of his game will always have limits. For Schwartzman, how he hits his serve – with good kick or with good placement – is more important than how hard he hits it.
“He's not going to be a big server so he has to have a very good percentage of first serves,” Chela said.
In his day, Chela was also one of the tour's best returners. In 2010, the year he won a career-best two ATP World Tour titles, Chela broke his opponents 32 percent of the time, fourth best on tour. But the 6-foot-3 Chela had an advantage his player lacks: size. “He returns closer to the baseline. I was farther behind because I had more power,” Chela said.
Size, however, has never stopped Schwartzman, not when he was a junior with shoes caked in red dirt, not when he was breaking onto the tour and trying to earn a living, and not during the 2017 season, where Schwartzman now has a chance to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time in Flushing Meadows.
“He doesn't care about that. A lot of people said that to him when he was a kid,” Chela said. “He's very confident with himself and he's showing to the world that it's possible.”