Top
Diego Schwartzman celebrates

‘Diego Schwartzman deserved it, and to lose against a friend hurts less,’ says Dominic Thiem


Diego Schwartzman ‘deserved’ his French Open quarterfinal win according to Dominic Thiem.

Thiem and Schwartzman battled it out in a five-hour five-set epic on Court Philippe Chatrier on Tuesday before the Argentinian secured a memorable win.

It has put Schwartzman into his first ever Grand Slam semi-final, where he will face Rafael Nadal on Friday.

Thiem came into the tournament as a favourite following two previous finals at Roland Garros and his US Open win last month, but he said he couldn’t begrudge his ‘friend’ his moment.

“I just told him that he deserves it,” he said of Diego Schwartzman. “I think, he’s for the first time in top ten.

“We both gave everything & the thing in tennis is there is one loser and one winner, and despite that I am so disappointed, I am happy for him. He really deserves it.

“It’s an amazing achievement for him to break into the top 10 for the first time in his career.

“Maybe to lose against a friend hurts a little bit less.”


Michael Graham, Tennishead.net Editor, has been a professional sports journalist for his whole career and is especially passionate about tennis. He's been the Editor of Tennishead.net for over 5 years and loves watching live tennis by visiting as many tournaments as possible. Michael specialises in writing in-depth features about the ATP & WTA tours.