The Argentine tennis player, Diego “Peque” Schwartzman, was eliminated from the ATP 500 in Barcelona in the second round, after losing to the Italian “top ten” Jannik Sinner 6-2, 6-4 and is going through one of the worst moments of his career.
After an hour and 40 minutes of play, he left the tournament that puts the Conde de Godó trophy at stake and ratified his lousy start to the season that relegated him to 48th place in the ATP world ranking.
The 30-year-old athlete had already fallen with his Italian colleague, eighth in the ranking, in the final in Antwerp, Belgium, in 2021, and on Wednesday of last week in the Monte Carlo Masters 1000.
In this way, Sinner, 21, will face in the round of 16 against the Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka (36), who beat the Belgian David Goffin (99) 6-1, 7-5.
With this result, the 2020 Roland Garros semifinalist reached his 12th loss of the season with just five wins. In addition, he has not managed to win twice in the same contest since the US Open 2022, where he reached the third round.
After this result, starting next week, it will drop to position 72 (so far) in the ranking, a place it has not occupied since October 2016.
The competition, which is played on the clay of the Real Club de Tenis de Barcelona, will award prizes for a total of 2,872,435 euros and is favored by the young Spanish star Carlos Alcaraz (2), who won the last edition . In addition, it has the participation of two other Argentine tennis players: Francisco Cerúndolo and Pedro Cachín.
Cerúndolo will start the tournament directly in the second round against the Italian Francesco Passaro (130), who yesterday beat the Spanish Fernando Verdasco (239) in the initial round by a comfortable 6-1 and 6-1. Meanwhile, Cachín yesterday beat the Dutchman Gils Brouwner (116), he will play against the second favorite for the title: the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (3).
