‘I had the smallest body for any tennis player but I still beat Rafael Nadal on clay’

Diego Schwartzman will officially end his career on home soil at this week’s Argentina Open.

A former world No. 8 with four titles, arguably the biggest talking point in Schwartzman’s career had nothing to do with his tennis. Standing at just 5’7” tall, the focus was usually on his height.

There was always a noticeable height difference with his opponents when they shook hands at the net. When he faced the likes of 6’10” John Isner, fans would lap up photos of the amusing contrast.

But Schwartzman didn’t always enjoy hearing conversations about his body and wanted some credit for his tennis. “I have a small body, but it gave the biggest players in our history bad moments,” the former No. 8 told the ATP.

“Something a lot of people spoke about was my height, 170 centimetres. I didn’t like that during my career, because many times when I was playing good tournaments, everyone was asking me how I did it and how I was going to win the next match.

“It was all about my weight, my height and everything about my small body. Nobody is at the top without height, it’s true. Barely anybody in the Top 100 is my height. I can’t lie, it was tough.”

The 32-year-old still found a way to use his height to his advantage. He continued: “I had to work so hard off the court so that my opponents did not feel I had less power or my movements were shorter or anything.

“For sure I know that height is a very important thing playing tennis. But more than 50 per cent the way you win matches comes from what you do away from the court.

“I really like when people say to me, ‘You were a fighter, but you were also a very good tennis player’. Just being a fighter, you are not going to be at the top of the sport. You need to play good tennis.