Diego Schwartzman, tennis’s smallest male star, is gaining stature

WITH FORMER champions Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, and Stan Wawrinka all missing from this year’s US Open, which began on August 28th, a throng of less-familiar names headed to Flushing with a chance to make a name for themselves. Now that the men’s field is down to the final eight, one name is particularly surprising: Diego Schwartzman (pictured, left), a 25-year-old Argentine who is just five feet and seven inches (1.70m) tall. Mr Schwartzman, nicknamed “El Peque” (“the small one”), had only once before reached the third round of a major. He is a specialist on slow clay surfaces, but ahead of his arrival in New York he had won fewer than half of his matches on hard courts.

Mr Schwartzman’s career-best performance caps what has been a breakthrough season. The highlight so far has been a four-set, upset victory in the third round at Flushing over the fifth seed Marin Cilic (pictured, right), who won the tournament in 2014 (and incidentally stands eleven inches taller than the Argentine). On Monte Carlo’s clay in April,...Continue reading