Pop quiz: What do tennis giants Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have in common this week with diminutive Argentine, Diego Schwartzman?
Answer: They are the only three men into the US Open fourth round who have not lost a set in the tournament, so far. Schwartzman has lost a total of 23 games, Djokovic 29 and Nadal—who got a walkover in the second round—has lost just 16 games.
Not shabby company for the 5-foot-7 Schwartzman—one of the shortest players on the men's tour—to keep, but not all that surprising, either. Despite his relatively short stature, Schwartzman plays a big game and has enjoyed his biggest career successes on the biggest stages in the game, the Grand Slams.
Schwartzman has twice been a Slam quarterfinalist: here at the US Open in 2017, where he toppled the 2014 champion Marin Cilic, and again in 2018, at Roland Garros. According to the ATP media office, when Schwartzman made the quarters here in Flushing Meadows, he was the shortest Grand Slam quarterfinalist since 5-foot-7 Jaime Yzaga of Peru, at the 1994 US Open. He also made the fourth round at the 2018 Australian Open.
On Saturday, Schwartzman toppled the big American Tennys Sandgren in under two hours, 6-4, 6-1, 6-3. It was a virtuoso performance for the man called “El Peque” (the short one), delighting his fellow countryman, who turned the Grandstand into a Davis Cup home match by chanting his name and “Ole, Ole!”
The 20th seed never lost his serve, had 29 winners from the baseline and attacked well, showcasing a strong volley and winning 18 of 25 points at the net.
Schwartzman will again be in the role of “David," playing his next match against “Goliath,” the talented and highly touted 6-foot-6 German Alexander Zverev, the No. 6 seed. The pair have split their two career matches, with Zverev winning last year, indoors, in Paris.
The 27-year-old Schwartzman has defied the odds by becoming a world-class tennis player. When he was 13 he was told by a doctor that he would not grow any taller than 5-foot-7. Dejected, he told his parents that he would give up his dream of playing professional tennis.
But his mother, Silvana, wouldn’t let him quit. "I told Diego he was wrong and his height shouldn't have any influence on his dreams, because since the day he was born, I knew he would become something special," she said, in story published on the ATP Tour website. "I pushed him to keep fighting."
Obviously Mom knew best.
