Schwartzman topples Thiem
Win over US Open champ sets up semifinal vs. Nadal
PARIS — Diego Schwartzman playedthrough thewindand rain, and into the dark of night, against Dominic Thiem at the French Open, contesting a total of 376 points spread out across five sets and 5 hours, 8 minutes, knowing all the while he’d neverwon a match of this magnitude.
And so, as he kept wasting chances to seize control of their quarterfinal Tuesday night, kept letting sets slip away, Schwartzman yelled at himself or at his coaches, put his hands on his hips or smirked at his mistakes.
Then, two points from defeat against the U.S. Open champ and two-time runner-up atRoland Garros, Schwartzman found his way and emerged with a 7-6 (1), 5-7, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (5), 6-2 win Tuesday by taking the last four games against a fading Thiem.
“I mean, we both gave everything,” said the No. 3-seeded Thiem, who is good friends with Schwartzman. “The thing in tennis is that there is one loser, onewinner. Despite (being) so disappointed, I’m still happy for him.”
The 12th-seeded Schwartzman, a 28-year-old from Argentina, entered this match with an 0-3 record in major quarterfinals. He acknowledged thatweighed on him.
“I was just so nervous,” he said. “I sawthe chance today.”
Schwartzmann will face 12-time champ and No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal, who beat 19-year-old Jannik Sinner of Italy in 7-6 (4), 6-4, 6-1. Nadal reached the semifinals at Roland Garros for a record-extending 13th time.
Schwartzman’s edginess was on display a few times. He couldn’t believe it when chair umpire Louise Azemar Engzell appeared to get a call wrong in the first set. He argued with her again later when she wouldn’ t halt the match despite a rain shower, saying: “How do you know it’s playable or not ... íf you are sitting there, andwe are playing?”
It was a grueling contest in which more than 100 of the points lasted at least nine strokes — frequently going past 20 or even 30 shots. Good as he is at speeding along the baseline on those kinds of extended exchanges, Schwartzman did some of his best work at the net, winning the point on 62% of his trips forward.
The 5-foot-7 Schwartzman’s serve is a liability, his biggestweakness and, so far, impediment to greater success. But while he lost nine of his service games, he made up for that with one of his many other skills— returning— and broke Thiem 10 times.
The ninth break put Schwartzman up 4-2 in the fifth when Thiem netted a backhand, and the last ended it, when Thiem put two drop shots into the net.
Thiem had been 17-1 inGrand Slam action this year, including a run to the final at the Australian Open in February. He also had won 26 of his past 30 matches at Roland Garros, with the losses all coming against Nadal or Novak Djokovic.
But all of the energy expended by Thiem’s legs and mind over the last five weeks, in New York and in Paris, took a toll, including a five-setter in his previous match. From early on against Schwartzman, Thiem would bail out of points by trying mediocre drop shots, a bit of foreshadowing of the day’s denouement.