National Post (National Edition)
Schwartzman pulls off terrific comeback
Argentine shows his grit in win at Rogers Cup
MONTREAL • Cries of “Vamos Diego” rang through the grandstand court Thursday afternoon as Argentine Diego Schwartzman battled his way into the quarterfinals of the Rogers Cup Canadian Open men’s tennis championships.
Schwartzman, making his first appearance at the Rogers Cup, has quickly become a fan favourite. It’s partly because he’s the shortest player on the ATP Tour at 5-foot-7 and partly because he battles for every point.
That was evident Tuesday when he survived four match points and posted a three-set win over third-seeded Dominic Thiem on centre court. On Thursday, he was down 0-6, 0-2 and faced two match points before rallying to beat 20-year-old American Jared Donaldson 0-6, 7-5, 7-5.
Friday will be Schwartzman’s second quarter-final appearance in an ATP Masters 1000 event this year, but Schwartzman said this one means more than the earlier result in Monte Carlo.
“Monte Carlo was on clay, which is my best surface,” he explained. “I always play good on hard courts, but this week I beat one top-10 player and in this match, I was down, almost finished but I tried to stay on the court. I don’t know how, but I come back and won the match.”
Schwartzman said he felt the crowd get behind him after he beat Thiem. It’s not the first time this year the fans have recognized him. He received a standing ovation at the French Open after taking Novak Djokovic to a fifth set.
“When you are playing good, the people who watch tennis appreciate that,” Schwartzman said.
As for the comeback after losing the first eight games, Schwartzman said he was in that position before in 2015.
“One time I did it against (Santiago) Giraldo in Istanbul when I reached my first semifinal,” Schwartzman said. “I think when I won my first game today, I started to play more confident and he played worse. He started to make many mistakes.”
Next up for Schwartzman is Robin Haase of the Netherlands, who surprised seventh-seeded Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-1.
The quarter-final match poses a challenge for Schwartzman, even though Haase is ranked No. 52, 16 spots behind Schwartzman. They have met four times and Haase has won each time, with his most recent win earlier this year on clay in Budapest.
Unseeded David Ferrer of Spain gave second-seeded Roger Federer an anxious moment or two before the Swiss ace settled down for a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory.
The 35-year-old Ferrer was a perennial top-10 player until he began to drop last year and is now ranked No. 33 in the world. He broke Federer in the second game of the match and held on to take the first set. But Federer got his act together and won the next two sets to run his career record against Ferrer to 17-0.
Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut rallied to beat Gaël Monfils of France 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (2) in a two-hour, 56-minute marathon, the longest match this week. While Bautista Agut is the 12th seed, the win over the unseeded Monfils was a minor upset — it was the Spaniard’s first win over Monfils in four matches.
I DON’T KNOW HOW, BUT I COME BACK AND WON THE MATCH