WHAT HAPPENED: He is the game’s little big man.
At 5-feet-7-inches, Diego Schwartzman continues to rise to the occasion on tennis' biggest stages, dismissing upstart qualifier Alex Molcan, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, on Friday to reach the US Open fourth round for the third time since 2017.
The No. 11 seed Argentine was a US Open quarterfinalist in 2017 and 2019 and reached a career best Grand Slam semifinal showing at the 2020 French Open. The 29-year-old returned to the quarterfinals at Roland Garros earlier this season
Ending the Cinderalla run of the left-handed Slovak—who is No. 138 in the world and playing in his first Grand Slam—featured none of the drama of Schwartzman’s last match two nights ago. That night the Argentine had prevailed through delays, disruptions, and a change of courts as Hurricane Ida came through the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, before winning well past midnight.
But today, the match, which started in the late afternoon sun and finished more than two hours later under the Grandstand lights, was primarily a baseline battle, the pair content to trade heavy groundstrokes in corner–to-corner lengthy rallies. And most of the time, Schwartzman came out the winner.
Molcan misfired 43 times while Schwartzman finished 30 points with a winner. The Argentine broke serve seven times.
WHAT IT MEANS: Schwartzman has been methodical through the opening week. Strong in all areas of the court, the Olympian has not dropped a set yet. He lost 11 games in the first match and 13 in the second.
The task should get tougher with No. 2 Daniil Medvedev, the 2019 US Open runner-up, looming as an expected quarterfinal foe.
MATCH POINT: Can Schwartzman be the last man standing come next Sunday to become the third Argentine to lift the US Open men’s trophy joining Guillermo Vilas (1977) and Juan Martin del Potro (2009)?
