Diego Schwartzman Faces Unexpected Defeat in Australian Open Qualifying and Marks First Grand Slam Absence in Nearly 10 Years

10/01/2024 18:19hs.

After his setback in his debut, Diego Schwartzman faced a setback by failing to enter the main draw of the Australian Open, marking his first absence in the main draw of a Grand Slam since Roland Garros 2014. The unexpected defeat in the qualifying phase saw him led to harsh self-criticism.

In a message shared on his Instagram account, the Little One revealed his feelings and said: “My streak of 36 Grand Slams playing Main Draw ends. It’s hard to come home quickly from such a nice tour. Tennis gave me too many things that I would have never imagined and this streak was one of them. The years make me enjoy such an achievement and not reproach myself for anything. Back home and preparing for the most beautiful tournaments of the year in Córdoba and Buenos Aires. Here we go,” commented the 111th in the world.

Despite this unexpected elimination, Schwartzman was determined to face what is coming. Thus, he announced his participation in the Córdoba Open, an official ATP event belonging to the 250 tournaments, where he He will be the first guest and will increase the number of Argentines in the main draw to seven of this sixth edition.

Schwartzman will play the Córdoba Open.

The number 8 in the ranking in October 2020 will seek to add his name to the list of champions in the tournament that will mark the beginning of the South American tour on clay. With a perfect presence in the contest, his best result was when reached the final in the aforementioned year’s editionwhen he was defeated in three sets by the Chilean Cristian Garín.

Likewise, he stood out as a semifinalist in 2022, and previously reached the quarterfinals in 2019 and 2021.

Sebastian Báez won the Córdoba Open 2023.

The bad streak that the Peque is dragging

Schwartzman, who had just been eliminated in the second round of the Brisbane qualifier, now repeated that result in the Australian major, breaking a long streak of almost 10 years appearing in the main draws of the four most important tournaments on the tennis calendar .

Since that edition of Roland Garros 2014, where the Argentine would reach the second round and fall to Roger Federer by 6-4, 6-3 and 6-4, he had been present in the 36 Grand Slams preceding that competition, which Rafael Nadal would end up winning.

The Little One does not raise his head.

From that moment on, El Peque established himself as one of the greatest exponents of Argentine tennis in the last decade. becoming Top 8 in 2020 and managing to reach important phases in major tournaments, such as the semi-finals of Roland Garros that year, where he lost 6-3, 6-3 and 6-7 to Rafa.

Despite these great moments, last year was not the best for him, reflected in the 17 defeats in debuts and in a ranking in which he started 25th, reached 136th and finished 114th. Many ups and downs, early defeats, complaints about the circuit, among other episodes, kept him away from the main spotlights as far as the best Argentinians today are concerned. At the beginning of 2024 he did not change the trend.