09/18/2021 16:07
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 09/18/2021 16:07
Diego Schwartzman looked unknown in the brick dust of the Lawn Tennis Club, where just six months ago he shouted champion in the Buenos Aires ATP.
Number 15 in the world, he had all the tickets to start with the right foot the series between Argentina and Belarus for the Davis Cup, but everything went the other way around and fell with the unknown young
Daniil Ostapenkov
, 18 years old and without ranking in singles or in doubles of the maximum world circuit (it is 63 ° in juniors).
The fall of
Peque
was surprising for the world of tennis and that is not an illogical consequence of the outcome of the match.
The 6-4, 6-3 of the European in less than two hours is undoubtedly already
one of the biggest hits in the history of tennis.
🇧🇾Daniil Ostapenkov.
🗓️Category 2003 (18 years old).
🎾Diextro, two-handed backhand.
🔢Number 63 of the junior ranking.
Today he beat 🇦🇷Schwartzman, 15th in the world.
🔥Ostapenkov made history in the #CopaDavis #ARGBLR I @belarustennis pic.twitter.com/xJfqRzffxP
- Davis Cup (@CopaDavis) September 18, 2021
Without going any further, the significance of the coup can be established by reviewing the
worst defeats of the tennis players who today occupy the first 15 steps
of the world ranking (Schwartzman is precisely the 15th).
What was the closest thing to such a blow?
To begin with, it must be said that
none of them were defeated by an unranked player
.
If it refers specifically to the complete careers of the 15 tennis players, the closest thing was what happened to Dominic Thiem in Gstaad 2014, when he fell to the Serbian
Viktor Troicki
, who at that time was number
847 in
the world.
Very low ranking, but ranking at last.
Another caveat: the Austrian was not in the top 20 at the time: he was 47th.
Among those who did, at the time of losing, they had a place among the top 15 rackets on the globe, the greatest dismay had been taken by Rafael Nadal, who lost to Swede
Joachim Johansson
,
690th
, in Stockholm 2006. The manacorí, by then , was already nothing less than number 2 in the world.
Daniil Ostapenkov made history.
Photo Pepe Mateos / Telam
The worst defeats of the first 15 of the ranking:
1.
Novak Djokovic: vs Filip Krajinovic [SRB, 319th], Belgrade 2010 (
Nole
retired
)
2.
Daniil Medvedev: vs Benjamin Bonzi [FRA, 266th], Roland Garros 2017 (he was 66th)
3.
Stefanos Tsitsipas: vs Malek Jaziri [TUN, 117th], Dubai 2018 (he was 82nd)
4.
Alexander Zverev: vs Florian Mayer [GER, 192nd], Halle 2016 (he was 38th)
5.
Andrey Rublev: vs Dennis Novak [AUT, 195th], Davis Cup 2018 (he was 35th)
6.
Rafael Nadal: vs Joachim Johansson [SWE, 690 °], Stockholm 2006
7.
Matteo Berrettini: vs Andy Murray [GBR, 503rd], Beijing 2019
8.
Dominic Thiem: vs. Viktor Troicki [SRB, 847th], Gstaad 2014 (he was 47th)
9.
Roger Federer: vs Bjorn Phau [GER, 407th], Washington 1999 (he was 104th)
10.
Casper Ruud: vs Frederik Nielsen [DEN, 513th], Davis Cup 2017
11.
Felix Auger-Aliassime: vs Viktor Galovic [ITA, 267th], Gstaad 2018 (he was 139th)
12.
Denis Shapovalov: vs Vit Kopriva [CZE, 249 °], Gstaad 2021
13.
Hubert Hurkacz: vs Tomislav Brkic [BIH, 418th], Davis Cup 2017 (he was 379th)
14.
Jannik Sinner: vs Jack Draper [GBR, 309th], Queen's 2021
15.
Diego Schwartzman: vs Daniil Ostapenkov [BLR, unranked], Davis Cup 2021
* The ranking of the defeated is clarified in the cases in which they suffered the defeat without being among the first 15.
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Davis Cup: emotional tribute to Diego Maradona with Dalma and Claudia Villafañe at the stadium