El Peque will face the Serbian for a place in the top 8 of the Parisian Grand Slam. The winner will play against Rafael Nadal or the Canadian Félix Auger Aliassime
El Peque has just eliminated the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov. Photo: REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
Diego Schwartzman will take on an almost impossible challenge at Roland Garros when he faces for the round of 16 Novak Djokovic , top seed and current champion of the French Grand Slam. The Peque, located in position 16 in the ATP world ranking, will face the Serbian (1) this Sunday not before 8 (Argentina time) on the Suzanne Lenglen court of the Parisian complex located in Bois de Boulogne, in a match that will be televised by ESPN and the platform Star+ .
The duel between the Argentine and the European will be the second of the day that will begin at 6 with the cross between the Italian Martina Trevisan (59) and the Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich ( 47).
The 29-year-old from Buenos Aires will try to beat for the first time a Nole who seems determined to retain the title and reach the number of 21 Grand Slam wins, a mark that would allow him to equal the holder of the record, the Spanish Rafael Nadal, and, in turn, pass the Swiss Roger Federer, also with 20 Majors in your collection.
Schwartzman stars in Paris for his fourth access to the round of 16 at Roland Garros in the last five years, with the high points of the 2020 semi-finals and the 2021 quarterfinals, both times defeated by “Rafa” Nadal. The tennis player from the Club Náutico Hacoajshowed a performance from low to high during the week, with wins against the Russian Andrey Kuznetsov (228) in four sets, and against the Spanish Jaume Munar(87) in five sets, to bring out his best version against the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (20), whom he defeated in straight sets and having only given up six games, by 6-3, 6-1 and 6-2.
Djokovic, meanwhile, had an impeccable campaign with victories without giving up a set over the Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka (99), the Slovak Alex Molcan (38) and the Slovenian Aljaz Bedene(195). In the previous antecedents, the Balkan has everything to win, in fact he beat the Argentine the six times they were face to face: US Open 2014, Roland Garros 2017, Rome 2019 and 2020 in the final, Australia 2020 and the same year in the group stage of the Masters played in London.
The winner of the match between Schwartzman and Djokovic will play in the quarterfinals against Spanish Rafael Nadal (5) or the Canadian Félix Auger Aliassime (9). Rafa, 13-time champion at Roland Garros, will face the Canadian this Sunday not before 10 o’clock in the third shift of the schedule on the center court Philippe Chatrier.
Other attractive matches proposed on Sunday in Paris are those that will be animated by the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz (6) with the Russian Karen Khachanov (25 ) and the German Alexander Zverev (3) against the surprising Spaniard Bernabé Zapata Miralles (131), who went through the classification and had the pleasure of winning three games.