Luciana Aranguiz placeholder image
09/18/2021 14:03
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 09/18/2021 2:03 PM
The first point of the series between Argentina and Belarus, for World Group I of the Davis Cup, had an unexpected result for the team led by Gastón Gaudio.
Diego Schwartzman, the best singles player with his position 15 in the ATP ranking, lost in straight sets with Daniil Ostapenkov, an 18-year-old player, without an ATP ranking and with only one series played in this competition.
The Peque's analysis, on the other hand, was not surprising. "
For my part, I did everything wrong
. I couldn't find the way around him or the way to play. Beyond the end, that he lowered the level and gave me the chance to recover a break, I was in a day that nothing came out, more beyond attitude. With attitude but without tennis it is very difficult to win a match, "he remarked with strong self-criticism at the press conference held at the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club.
"It is difficult to analyze him because I really do not know him. It would be a bit unwise to say if he had a good game because I do not know him, I do not know if this is his usual level. I did not have any information on how he played.
There was no way to find information about him. that to raise the game
. Yesterday I saw him train a little and I saw what he saw today, "he said about his rival. And he returned to focus on his game: "I could not do anything that I do well, neither the impacts, nor the returns, no points. I cannot rescue anything."
Asked if the presence of the public and favoritism in front of an unknown player could have played against him, Schwartzman was categorical: "
The pressure to win did not influence
".
"In the last three years that I played on this court, I had lost only one game," he recalled about the duel with Italian Marco Cecchinato in the 2019 ATP final in Buenos Aires.
"
There are no excuses
, the only reality is that I played way below my level and nothing came out. There are no excuses for public pressure or favoritism. I had a bad day and there is nothing more to say. Surely in a while I will go. to hit him again to see if I can have different sensations, "he added.
Schwartzman will return to the court this Sunday - for the fourth point against Erik Arutiunian (42nd in juniors and 16 years) - and, therefore, he wanted to
"play a little better
.
"
"Sometimes it is difficult because no matter how much level I have shown in the last days training, that I was very good, and that I had been recovering my best level. Sometimes the confidence is not there. Tomorrow I will go out to the court again and hopefully I can play a little better. Today was very poor, "he stressed.
Finally, Peque admitted that he could not enjoy the fact of playing with the public again at BALTC: "All that was very nice, but unfortunately it was difficult to enjoy the game. I enjoyed it little and nothing because of what happened on the court . The public, always spectacular, had very good energy and that is always good because it encourages you to fight a little more. But today I could not enjoy it because the level was very bad. "
Look also
Davis Cup: emotional tribute to Diego Maradona with Dalma and Claudia Villafañe at the stadium
Davis Cup: Schwartzman stumbled against Ostapenkov and Argentina starts down in the series