Diego Schwartzman will play the London Masters and pursue the story of two Argentine champions

Luciana Aranguiz

11/06/2020 17:03

• Clarín.com

• sports

Updated 11/06/2020 17:03

Be number one in the world.

Win a Grand Slam.

Raise the Masters trophy.

In that order or another, the vast majority of players aiming for a career on the professional tennis circuit dream of one day achieving one of those three achievements.

Or everyone.

And there are not many who succeed.

Diego Schwartzman can cross out one of those goals today.

The

qualified for the London Masters for the first time and will write a new chapter in the blue and white history of the contest, which has two champions, a finalist and a handful of Argentines who knew how to leave their marks in one of the most important events of the calendar.

Schwartzman, who ensured his presence at the

London

thanks to the triumph of the Spanish Rafael Nadal over his compatriot Pablo Carreño Busta, will be the eighth representative of our country to participate in the tournament.

And the first since 2013, when Juan Martín Del Potro played it for the last time.

The 2020 edition - which will be held from November 15 to 22 - will be the 18th that will feature at least one national racket in competition.

It is a huge prize for Peque and the feeling of goal accomplished beyond the tough defeat he suffered in the early hours of this Friday against Russian Daniil Medvedev, who beat him 6-3 and 6-1 in a match in the that conspicuously there were no equivalences.

However, that defeat, which was consummated in just over an hour of play - does not tarnish the Argentine's enormous season, which will close the year in the top ten and in the tournament played by the best of the year.

With a record of 23 wins and 11 losses in a calendar reformulated by the coronavirus pandemic, Schwartzman rounded off an unforgettable 2020 beyond the fact that he could not get titles - the last one was in Los Cabos last year.

After a very weak restart to the season on the US cement tour that included a tough loss in the opening round of the US Open, Peque put up a colossal performance at Roland Garros, eliminating Austrian Dominic Thiem and only releasing in the semi-finals to Nadal.

It was no surprise.

Before arriving in Paris - for the first time this year - the Argentine had been a finalist in the Masters 1000 in Rome.

The limit was set by the Serbian Novak Djokovic, but earlier he had struck the blow by beating Nadal for the first time in his career in a near-perfect match in the quarterfinals.

This is how he began to cement this historic qualification for the Masters and thus join the batch of chosen Argentine tennis.

From Vilas to Del Potro

The history of Argentines in the Masters tournament began in 1974, when the event was known as the

.

That year, a Guillermo Vilas, only 22 years old - who had lived through a consecrating season with six titles - did not arrive as a favorite in Melbourne, the venue for the tournament.

But he swept the courts of the Australian city and ended up screaming champion.

Vilas played the "Masters" tournament eight times and was champion in 1974, in his first participation.

The Mar del Plata beat Swedish Björn Borg and locals

and

in the round robin

.

In the semifinals he beat Mexican

in four sets

.

And in the final he surprised the Romanian

, who was looking for his fourth consecutive consecration.

Vilas returned to play the tournament seven other times.

After the title, his best performances were in 1975, 1977 -the best season of his career-, 1979 and 1982, when he reached the semifinals.

In 1980 for the first time there were two light blue and white rackets among the best eight players of the season: Vilas and José Luis Clerc, who made his debut at the end of the year event.

None managed to overcome the first stage.

Clerc played it again in 1981, 1982 - he reached the quarterfinals, his best result, and said goodbye to the American John McEnroe - and in 1983. After that edition, which due to a calendar issue was held at the beginning of 1984, they passed

without Argentine presence in the Masters.

Guillermo Coria was one of the two Argentines in the 2003 edition. Photo EFE / David Maris

We had to wait for the appearance of

, one of the best litters of blue and white tennis, to see a compatriot in that contest again.

It was in 2003, when Guillermo Coria and David Nalbandian were present in Houston, in what at that time was called the

.

Coria came in as the fourth seed, having won five titles that year - including the Hamburg Masters - and played another two finals.

Nalbandian, a finalist in the Montreal Masters and in Basel, entered as the eighth seed.

The two said goodbye in the round robin.

The Santa Fe, with defeats against Andy Roddick and

and victory against

.

The Cordovan, after having beaten

and lost to Andre Agassi and Roger Federer, who later won the first of his six titles in the contest.

In 2005, the tournament was played in Shanghai, which had already hosted it in 2002 and would then be its headquarters until 2008. That edition was special for Argentine tennis.

Because it was the one that had the most celestial and white representation in history, since Nalbandian, Coria, Gastón Gaudio and Mariano Puerta played.

But above all because it ended with an

Nalbandian entered the Masters in 2005 after Roddick's dismissal and ended up lifting the trophy.

Photo Reuters / Nir Elias

Three of the Argentines entered the contest "through the window."

Gaudio, for the loss of Lleyton Hewitt, who preferred to stay in Australia because his wife was about to give birth.

Nalbandian, due to an injury to Roddick.

And Puerta, hours before the start, when Rafael Nadal announced his retirement also due to physical problems.

The Spaniard, who traveled to Shanghai at the last minute, played top-level tennis on Chinese soil.

In the round robin he beat Coria and

and lost to Federer, and qualified for the semi-finals.

In that instance he defeated

.

And he lifted the trophy after beating the Swiss, who had reached the final by beating Gaudio, in a match of great tension and great tennis that was defined in five sets.

"It's the best moment of my career," said David, who reached the semis again the following year. 

Coria, Nalbandian and Gaudio in the official photo of the 2005 Masters. After Nadal's withdrawal at the last minute, Puerta also entered.

Photo Archive

After that historic Masters of

, a couple of seasons passed without great performances, until in 2009 Del Potro burst onto the scene.

In that season, the tournament was officially renamed

and settled in London, a city to which it will say goodbye in 2020.

Del Potro shone in his debut at the

in the British capital, where the event was transformed into a special spectacle, with its stands in the dark and the players entering like rock stars, accompanied by lights and a smoke screen.

The man from Tandil, who had won the US Open that year, defeated Federer and Fernando Verdasco in the round robin and lost to Andy Murray.

He still advanced to the semifinals, where he beat Swede

and ended up falling in straight sets in the final to Davydenko.

Del Potro reached the final in 2009, but was unable to beat Davydenko.

AP Photo / Alastair Grant

Delpo

qualified again in 2013, but could not repeat the great performance of his debut and stayed in the first round.

And he had also won a place in 2018, but the broken kneecap he suffered that year in Shanghai - and which still has him away from the courts - forced him to get off.

"It is frustrating for me not being able to compete in London. It is a very special tournament and I have tried everything possible to improve my knee, but I need more time," said the man from Tandil with pain at that time, showing how much he means to he, as for any player, to play that contest with the best of the season.

In this special 2020, hit by the coronavirus pandemic, there will once again be an Argentine representative at the Masters.

Schwartzman will cut a seven-year streak of absences and will write a new chapter in the celestial and white history in that traditional and prestigious tournament, which all players in the world dream of playing.

FK