WESTERN & SOUTHERN OPEN

August 23, 2020

Diego Schwartzman

Press Conference

D. SCHWARTZMAN/C. Ruud

7-6, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. I'm fascinated to find out about your tie-died T-shirt you wore on court today. The commentators here in the States on Tennis Channel were remarking about it, and it's taken off on social media. Did you have any say-so with Fila in the design of your T-shirt, your apparel?

DIEGO SCHWARTZMAN: I really love it. I really love the new shirt. It's 100% different that Fila it's always trying to do. It's another colors, and I really love to wear.

It was a nice change. I knew already since the beginning of the year, but I was hoping to play this tournament to wear this shirt. So I'm very happy to be here and using these clothes for Cincinnati.

So I think Fila was improving a lot the last few years, and the colors show different style so it's nice.

Q. And I noticed, if I recall, after you had secured the match and did the racquet tap, that you kind of waved to the "crowd." I guess old habits die hard with players. Is it difficult getting used to being out on court without fans to play off of?

DIEGO SCHWARTZMAN: It's different. Obviously it's a different feeling, going on court without people. But in the first set it was a few volunteers and a few friends, players and coaches, watching the match. So I was feeling like, okay, it's maybe a tournament that not many people is coming but someone is watching.

So I'm not thinking about that. I'm just happy to be back on court. This is the situation right now, and we all know that it's just trying to help about health and be always, you know, healthy at the end of these two tournaments.

Q. Just wondering what it feels like to be back on court and in competition at an ATP tournament. Does it feel like it's been forever since a real match, or sort of what was the sensation of being back at a Masters tournament?

DIEGO SCHWARTZMAN: You know, it was a very long wait. We don't suppose, you know, to wait for five, six months to play tennis. It's always one month and a half, sometimes two months after November to play Australia or some tournament before Australia. So it was different.

And also, I never got injured, you know, for many months. So I was always ready to play the next week.

But my last match before this one was against Cuevas, so I got injured for my first time in Buenos Aires this year. After that, I didn't play. So since middle of February I didn't play a match, so it was great to be back.

I'm very happy. And time goes quickly, and here we are.

Q. You mentioned sort of hoping everybody stays healthy a moment ago. Just wondering whether, for you, it was a difficult decision to come to New York for this tournament and the US Open? As we know, some players decided not to travel because of concerns about the Coronavirus. I'm just wondering, for you, did you have to think long about it? And why did you decide to come?

DIEGO SCHWARTZMAN: Well, it was very difficult for me, you know, and for many people who is not in America. Was not easy to come here from Argentina. We have just one flight per week, and 20 days before Cincinnati, we didn't -- maybe less than 20 days, we didn't know if the tournament was going to happen.

So was not easy to take the decision and come here. But I was practicing for more than two months, and I was just thinking playing again a tournament and nothing else.

You know, the communication and many things were not really good. I know the situation, it's really, really tough, and nobody is in the situation to say, Okay, this is going to happen or not. Every week is changing about COVID.

So it's not easy. Nobody is in an easy position. But the communication was not good enough for many people around the world who has no opportunity to come here.

So I really surprised that many, many guys, more than 90% of the guys are here. That's nice. So far everything, it's going on and it's nice for us.

Q. As you were sort of indicating, real tough times now. People are looking for points of inspiration. You wrote some beautiful words about your own history a while ago. If you don't mind, would you take a minute and just talk about your family and the escape situation in Europe during World War II and what really occurred there?

DIEGO SCHWARTZMAN: Andrew (phonetic) know about this. He wrote a good article a few months ago. You know, it was a tough situation. My family knows really much about it, but I know the situation. And after that in Argentina, for me, when I was born in the '90s, was not easy, as well.

My family were not doing really well. I start and I was trying to play tennis but was not easy. And the Federation of Argentina has not many money like many countries around the world.

So I'm here. My family right now is in Buenos Aries watching me. They were watching my match in my home, and I'm really happy. I didn't expect to be here, to be honest. Here I am. I'm enjoying. I'm very happy to be back.

The situation in the past for many, many people around the world was not easy. Right now with the COVID, you know, many things are happening all the time for everyone.

Here I am, and the past is in the past. It was not really good, for sure, but here we are. My family, right now, it's okay.

Q. What happened in your younger years? If I understand correctly, your family had some decent family wealth, and then it sort of went poof, no more, and you had to really scramble and sell things as you went to junior tournaments. What was that about?

DIEGO SCHWARTZMAN: That was not easy at the beginning, you know. But I had the support of many former players from Argentina, many guys who helped me, you know, around my family, friends of my family, who helped me to start playing tennis when I was 15, 16 years old.

I'm really grateful, because if I didn't have this many people, for sure, I was not prepared at that time for improve my tennis.

With them was very easy the beginning for me and for my family, and I think I'm here because of them in grand part.