“The Difference Was There”: Diego Schwartzman Reveals What Helped Him Enter the Top 10 Rankings

Diego Schwartzman was one of those players who performed brilliantly in the 2020 season. He was the ‘surprise packet’ of the season who gave a tough fight to some of the biggest players. It not only helped him earn a name but also made sure that he finished within the top 10 ATP rankings at the end of the year.

Recently, in an interview, Schwartzman revealed what brought him in the top 10 rankings. He looked confident and revealed how the transition took place.

“What changed was winning those Grand Slam quarters, an instance that I had reached several times,” began the Argentine. “The difference is 300 or 400 points and in 2018 it had been 600 or 700 from Isner, the 10th of that moment.”

The Argentine clearly said that the difference came when he started beating big players like Dominic Thiem and Rafael Nadal. It actually helped him gain a lot of confidence.

“The difference was there: the quarterfinals that I beat Thiem, the quarterfinals that I beat Rafa and the semi-final that I beat Shapovalov. That difference takes you to the top 10,” added the 28-year-old. (via Google Translate)

It was surely these consistent performances that took Diego’s career to a whole new level.

“It is a click and a quality jump”- Diego Schwartzman on his entry in the Top 10

Schwartzman emphasized that the task used to become even more difficult once a player entered the top 10 rankings. He believed that after this, they had to do more hard work in order to stay there.

“It is a click and a quality jump, without a doubt, because to get there you have to do something more than you did not do before. But many times he had been close and he had not been able to do it. Perhaps the experience, the years and the confrontations against them made me compete better in those instances,” concluded Schwartzman.

Diego again reiterated that playing regularly against the top players helped him a lot. The Argentine shocked the world when he defeated Nadal on clay at the Italian Open 2020. With the Australian Open 2021 coming up, Schwartzman will certainly be eyeing his maiden Grand Slam title. Will he able to lift the title in Melbourne this time?