Schwartzman, imminent retirement? | LiveTennis.it

“End of the journey”. With this cryptic post on the social network. A comment that alarms his supporters: is his retirement imminent?

Diego, 31 years old and former ATP n.8, has been going through a very dark crisis for a long time (he is currently n.142 in the world ranking). He didn’t really like yet another setback suffered by the Catalan veteran Albert Ramos Viñolas (105th in the ranking, 36 years old) 3-6 7-6(3) 6-2 at the end of an almost three-hour battle , with two match points not exploited by the Argentine in the final phase of the second set. Schwartzman, who played six times in the main draw of the Madrid tournament, did not take it well at all, writing that bitter comment and without giving further explanations even to his colleagues from his country.

It may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. In fact, Diego has not been able to find his best tennis again for a long time, despite guaranteeing that he trains with great intensity and does things at his best, as he always did in his career, reaching the top 10 and achieving great satisfaction, such as beating Nadal for example. on clay at the Foro Italico in 2020. This is what he spoke at the recent ATP in Buenos Aires after being defeated by Daniel Galan: “It has become very difficult when things go wrong in the tournament. I make a very great effort every day and maintaining myself mentally with the results I have achieved is complicated (…) If the victories don’t come back, the happiness of being on the pitch, it’s difficult. I have very little left in the tank.”

Unfortunately for him, from then on his 2024 did not continue in the best way, on the contrary: he lost on his debut in the tournaments of Los Cabos, Acapulco, Indian Wells and Monte Carlo.

It is curious that shortly before Diego’s sad comment, again on the social network Executive. “Schwartzman and Townsend will contribute their diverse perspectives and experiences to the PTPA’s governing body, offering strategic guidance to advance the PTPA’s mission of protecting and enhancing players’ rights.”

We’ll see if that social post was a hot outburst for the bitterness of a victory that he only caressed, or if his tank has been totally emptied and he has no desire to try to fill it again. Certainly in your career you have made great efforts to reach a very high level, starting from a position that was anything but easy. A thousand sacrifices were made as a young man – even by his family – to get to the tennis that counts for him. Significant physical and mental fatigue, which probably progressively drained him.

Marco Mazzoni