Making his debut at the ATP World Tour Finals this year, Diego Schwartzman hoped of ending the season on a high. However, his hopes got shattered after Schwartzman lost his second group-stage match to Alexander Zverev in a thrilling three-set encounter.

Despite getting an early break in the opening set, Schwartzman was unable to capitalize on the start. Zverev broke back Schwartzman’s service twice to clinch the first set 6-3. However, World No.9 fought back in the second set and converted his second set point to stay alive in the match.

During the post-match conference, Schwartzman revealed that the opening set reminded him of his first match against Novak Djokovic. The Argentine had won an early break against Djokovic at the start of the match, but eventually lost the battle in straight sets.

“I felt like my 1st set was like with Djokovic. I’m happy with some parts of my game but he deserved to win because he played better in the key moments. The serve was also very important, especially on this surface,” said Schwartzman.

The Roland Garros semifinalist only won 60% of the points on his first serve, and Zverev’s powerful returns made matters worse for Schwartzman. In the third set, Zverev dominated by racing to a 4-2 lead and closed out the match to stay alive at the ATP Nitto Finals.

Diego Schwartzman vows to improve

Having already crashed out of the season-ending championships, Schwartzman will square off against Daniil Medvedev in his final group match. The 28-year-old contended to make improvements to his game and extract the best experience from the tournament.

“I think I have many things to improve for the next game and get the best possible experience in a week that I play against the best in the world,” remarked Schwartzman.

At the Paris Masters earlier this month, Schwartzman suffered a humiliating loss to Medvedev in the quarterfinals. With the final group matches left, it will be interesting to see which two players from Group Tokyo 1970 make the cut.