INTERNAZIONALI BNL D'ITALIA

May 10, 2022

Diego Schwartzman

Press Conference

D. SCHWARTZMAN/M. Kecmanovic

6-3, 3-6, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Can you try and describe the roller coaster. There was a point where you lost 15 points in a row, came back, match points down. How did you get through that?

DIEGO SCHWARTZMAN: Well, it was a difficult match. He's playing very well. He's doing I think his best year so far. So it was difficult because he improve his game after the second set. The beginning of the third he was playing much better than me.

I don't know, it was difficult to know what happen at the beginning of the third because I was not able to win a point. But at the end, you know, this is tennis. You know sometimes you are going to have the chance.

I lost the match against Kokkinakis this year. I had a match point. I was playing much better than him. Last year Bautista. Tsitsipas in Monte-Carlo.

You know, tennis on clay, if you are there and wait for the chance, maybe you have. I think at the end he was playing much better than me on the third. I was lucky, to be honest, but I was ready for the chance.

Sometimes you have to be ready for the chance, have a little bit of lucky, and at the end I won.

Q. Do you feel sometimes when a player almost loses, almost out of the tournament, but gets the second chance, the pressure is off? Do you know what I mean?

DIEGO SCHWARTZMAN: No. From him?

Q. No, for you. You almost lost, but you escaped. How does it feel like maybe the pressure is a little bit off moving forward?

DIEGO SCHWARTZMAN: Always first round, it's a little bit difficult. Coming on clay season, for me it's important. I did very good two tournaments. In Madrid, Grigor beat me easy. He was better than me. You know, I'm feeling the ball. I'm feeling okay. Healthy, ready to play. It's important for me.

When you come for the tournament, you are practicing for a few days, it's difficult first round. You are thinking all about sometimes, so the nerves are around.

At the end it's a tennis match. If you play much better than the opponent, you are going to win. You don't have to think about the first round or second. It's just a match.

Sometimes you don't play your best level in the first one. But let's see tomorrow. I have another opportunity to do better.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Sebastian Baez. He won a very close one today. What do you make of his fast progress?

DIEGO SCHWARTZMAN: Yeah, we were talking about that. He's doing fast. It's first year for him playing ATP, totally first year. Last year he didn't play much. For the first year already, the almost top 35 maybe have the chance, if he's doing well here, to be in the 32 top seed in Roland Garros.

First year, first months, he's doing fast and he's doing very well. He won a tournament. He played a final a few months ago.

Argentinian tennis is happy, very happy about him. It's like we always say: Is difficult to know, Argentina is always having players every year.

He's young, so it's good to have a new player in the top.