It’s a full-circle moment for Diego Schwartzman at the 2024 US Open.
Eleven years after he came to Flushing Meadows for the first time, and lost in the final round of qualifying, the 32-year-old Argentinean has entered the main draw the hard way. He defeated Lithuania’s Vilius Gaubas 6-4, 6-4 in his final qualifying round to book his spot in the main draw on a sunny, idyllic Thursday in Flushing Meadows.
Schwartzman, who in May announced plans to officially retire next February at his hometown event in Buenos Aires, is thrilled to have one last crack at a Grand Slam main draw.
“It’s a different way, going to qualies on the bus,” the former world No. 8 said after Thursday’s qualifying triumph on Stadium 17. “It’s different, I’m being honest. There are less people at qualies watching you, but at the same time players are coming to me saying ‘Let’s go, keep pushing’ and it has been good.
"I feel like for me it’s just one more match, but at the same time, I am thinking [it could be] the last match. It’s weird, but it’s good, I’m feeling OK, I’m enjoying it.”
Schwartzman says that things instantly changed for him this season when he announced his impending retirement on social media. Gone was the pressure to maintain an elite ranking or to live up to the lofty expectations he had set for himself by reaching the Top 10 and playing five major quarterfinals, including two in Queens in 2017 and 2019.
The Buenos Aires native said that his peers and the media started to appreciate all he has accomplished instead of asking him to squeeze more tennis miracles out of his 5-foot-7, 140-pound frame.
“They see that I’m tired and the routine is tough to continue,” he said. “They changed the pressure they put on me because of the winning and the ranking and now they enjoy my career a little bit more, how I did and how I am doing now. So for me it was special, to receive a lot of messages and hear good things about me.”
Currently ranked No. 246, Schwartzman failed to qualify at Roland Garros and Wimbledon this year, but he powered through three qualifying matches without dropping a set this week in New York. Playing on a packed Stadium 17 on Thursday, he hung around long after the match signing autographs and taking selfies with his enthusiastic supporters.
Stadium 17 is lovely, but Schwartzman is hoping to go bigger in the main draw. When told that he could face Novak Djokovic or Carlos Alcaraz in his first-round match (both have drawn one of the 16 men’s singles qualifiers as their first-round opponent), his eyes lit up.
“For me it’s great, now playing the main draw in the last Grand Slam after losing in qualifying at the last two Grand Slams,” he said, adding: “I hope to be on a big court, at least on [Stadium] 17 like I did the last two matches. If I’m going to lose in the first round, I prefer it to be in Arthur Ashe than in Court 13.”
Schwartzman owns a 16-10 lifetime record in main draw matches at the US Open, and has gone toe-to-toe at the Open with four-time champions Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, as well as former runner-ups Juan Martin del Potro and Kei Nishikori. Asked to recall some of his standout New York memories, he admitted he will forever remember two breathtaking ones from 2019.
Schwartzman smiles when he thinks of them, even today.
“There is one point I played against Rafa [in the pair’s 2019 quarterfinal], it’s everywhere [on the internet],” he said. “I’m running everywhere. That point I always have in my memory.
“And also another one against [Alexander] Zverev, it was a set point in the Round of 16 [also in 2019] in the third set, I remember this point similar to the one against Rafa, I was running everywhere and winning the point with a winner and then I beat him to play Rafa after.
"These two points I have always in my mind when I come [to New York].”
There are certainly more rollicking points to be played by Schwartzman, no matter who he faces in the first round. But when his US Open career officially comes to an end he says he’ll have no regrets.
“For me I think I made the right decision, I’m happy with the decision,” he says.
Schwartzman got engaged to his longtime girlfriend Eugenia De Martino in June, and says a “new life is coming.”
“[My] thirties come in with a lot of emotions,” he said. “At 35, I hope to have a family.”
The New York fans will be sad to see him go. Schwartzman has been part of the tennis family in Flushing Meadows for more than a decade, and his infectious energy and showmanship will be sorely missed.
Ditto, says Schwartzman, who’ll miss the New York energy as well.
“It’s always good here,” he said. “A lot of Latin people here in America–I don’t know why but they like me, and it’s fun to play with that.”
