10/25/2020 4:56 PM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 10/25/2020 4:56 PM
The great level that Diego Schwartzman demonstrated when he returned from the standstill due to the pandemic opened a new horizon for him.
On the one hand, it allowed him to make the leap to the top ten for the first time and to make history for Argentine tennis.
But the chances of writing glorious chapters do not stop there because, among other things and despite the fall in the final in the
ATP 250 in Cologne
,
Peque
is increasingly close to the possibility that
after seven years he will
be the first national tennis player at the London Masters, the great event at the end of the season.
The last participation of an Argentine in the tournament that brings together the eight best of the season dates back to 2013, when Juan Martín Del Potro was eliminated in the group stage, with a win against
Richard Gasquet
and falls against Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.
Despite having obtained in 2018 the necessary points to qualify, the knee fracture that still has him to abuse prevented him from being part.
In the case of Schwartzman, he still needs to secure the minimum number of points to play the contest.
To enter it
will reach him with being ninth
in the
Race to London
, since Roger Federer, despite having exceeded the threshold to enter, will not see activity until 2021 due to his knee operation.
Those who are already classified and will play will be Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem, Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev.
There are, then,
two quotas to be defined.
So far, the minimum number of points needed to reach the Masters is
3,725
, although logic indicates that in the coming weeks that number will be adjusted downward.
The
Peque
, who with his arrival at the final of the ATP in Cologne has 3,285, could well get the 440 remaining units in the tournaments that remain until the end of the season.
Although it could achieve it with less, according to what happens with the results of others.
Schwartzman, during the final in Cologne against Zverev.
(Photo: EFE)
Who are the ones who could surpass Schwartzman and therefore his main rivals on the way to the British capital?
In first place is the Russian
Andrey Rublev
, who is eighth in the race, immediately above the Argentine in the ranks, with 3,429 points.
But the
main threats
are below, in tennis players to whom the Argentine took more distance in the
ATP 250 in Cologne
but who maintain their chances of reaching and even surpassing it.
Behind
Peque
is a compact batch of three tennis players who still have good chances of going to London: they are the Italian
Matteo Berrettini
(10th with 2875 points), the Frenchman Gael Monfils (11th, 2860) and the Canadian
Denis Shapovalov
(12 2835).
Of them, only Shapovalov does not know what it is to play the Masters.
And Berrettini has just participated in the 2019 edition, where he was eliminated in the group stage.
Both Monfils and Shapovalov will play in the week that begins the ATP 500 in Vienna, where
Peque
will also be
.
It is one of the last chances to score points remaining in a special season cut short by the pandemic.
After that, only the Masters 1000 in Paris and the ATP 250 in Sofia will remain.
In them, a game will end in which Schwartzman has great chances of continuing to expand his history in this 2020 of great joys for him in sports.
FK
