Last Updated on May 9, 2023
Named and baptized in honor of Argentine football legend Diego Maradona, known by his nickname El Peque, the guy who showed that this game is not just for the big boys, is Argentinean tennis player Diego Schwartzman.
Diego Schwartzman was born on 16th August 1992 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is of Jewish descent, during the Holocaust his maternal grandfather managed to escape by boat from Germany to Argentina, and his paternal grandfather emigrated from Russia to Argentina. His father Ricardo and his mother Silvana owned a successful clothing and jewelry company, but because of the Argentine great depression in the 90’s family became quite poor. Diego started playing tennis at age of seven at Club Nautico Hacos, a Jewish-Argentine sports club In Buenos Aires. As a child his idol was Rafael Nadal, and his favorite tournament is Roland Garros. Besides tennis he is a big fan of football and local club Boca Juniors and his favorite player is Juan Roman Riquelme. At age 13, he began traveling across South America to play in junior tournaments. To afford the expenses of tennis, Schwartzman and his mother would sell bracelets at his junior tennis tournaments.
Who is Diego Schwartzman’s Current Coach?
Since 2017 Diego is under mentorship of former Argentinean tennis player Juan Ignacio Chela.
Juan Ignacio Chela
Juan Ignacio “El Flacio” Chela was born on 30th August 1979 in Ciudad Evita, Argentina. He played pro tennis for fourteen years until his retirement at the end of 2012. After two years of turning pro, he was suspended due to a positive routine drug test. During his career he won six ATP titles in singles and three titles in doubles, all of them on clay court. His best ranking was World No.15 in 2004.
After his professional retirement in 2012, he turned to show business and was in charge of several cycles on TV and radio. Additionally, he gained popularity for his humor on social media. In 2017 he returned to the world of tennis as coach of Schwartzman, whom he accompanies in most of his trips around the world.
Schwartzman’s 2017 season proved to be the best of his career to that point. He reached his first major quarterfinal at US Open, he also made two other quarterfinals at Masters 1000 and finished the year ranked World No.25.
During 2018 he won his second ATP Tour title at the Rio Open and next year he captured his first –ever title at hard court tournament at Los Cabos Open, his third ATP title in total. In 2020 he played his first Grand Slam semifinal at French Open and entered in top 10 players ranked as World No.8. As a result of his success, he was awarded the Olimpia Award which is given to the most important Argentinean sportsperson of the year.
“Diego is very much a rhythm player and at the start, the lack of matches hurt him, as well as some uneasiness,” said Chela. “We always get over to him that he has to be ready to expect his best moment.”
Starting from 2021 another Argentinean, Alejandro Fabri has joined the coaching staff.
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Alejandro Fabri
Alejandro Fabri was born on 27th October 1982 in Rufino, Argentina. He wasn’t very successful as tennis player. Turning professional in 2001, he reached a career high singles ranking of 328 in the world. His best career result is winning 2008 Asuncion Challenger in doubles. He won 21 doubles titles at ITF Futures level, as well as seven Futures titles in singles.
As tennis coach he was mentor of Dominican tennis player Victor Estrella Burgos from 2013 until 2016, period in which Victor had his best results. He won his first ATP title at 2015 Ecuador Open and defended it in 2016. During that period of three years, he also won five ATP Challenger titles in singles and one ITF Futures title in doubles.
From 2017 Fabri started coaching Bolivian tennis player Hugo Dellien, who under his guidance in 2018 won his first ATP Challenger title at Sarasota Open. While working together, Hugo managed to win four more ATP Challengers in singles, one in doubles and three more ITF Futures in doubles.
Before joining Schwartzman’s team, Fabri also coached another Argentinean, Leonardo Mayer who managed to win ATP title at German Open.
Working alongside with Chela and Fabri, Diego Schwartzman in 2021 won his first tournament since 2019, in his hometown at Argentina Open. He did not drop a set in the entire tournament. He started off the season 2022 strong, reaching two finals at Argentina Open and Rio Open, his best results of the season so far.
Besides Chela and Fabri, part of the team is fitness coach Martiniano Orazi who used to work with Juan Martin Del Potro for seven years, than physical therapist Luis D’Alessandro and nutritionist Luis Spena.
“We schedule the daily work together. I suggest what I think is best for him to do, and we come to an agreement. We have a very good dialogue and that’s the key.” said Orazi about their fitness routine.
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Diego Schwartzman Past Coaches
Leonardo Olguin
During his career, Diego worked with another Argentinean coach, Leonardo Olguin.
Leonardo Olguin (46) was born 8th October 1975 in Mendoza, Argentina. His professional appearances were mostly restricted to the Challenger tour, where he won a total of four titles, all in doubles. Since 2003 he has been involved in coaching and was long time coached of Martín Vassallo Argüello who won seven ATP Challenger titles under Olguin’s menthorship.
As for Diego, during the collaboration with Olguin, he won his first ATP title in 2016 at Istanbul Open by beating established top player Grigor Dimitrov in the final.
“A long journey together, today comes to an end. Thank you for all these years of learning and goals achieved.” – said Schwartzman about his coach when they parted ways in 2021.
Diego Schwartzman’s achievements with different coaches
We have collected in the table the data about the trophies won by Diego Schwartzman under the guidance of various coaches.
Coaches | Years of Completion | Titles |
Juan Ignacio Chela | 2017 – ongoing | 2018 Rio Open 2019 Los Cabos Open 2021 Argentina Open |
Alejandro Fabri | 2021 – ongoing | 2021 Argentina Open |
Leonardo Olguin | 2016 – 2021 | 2016 Istanbul Open 2018 Rio Open 2019 Los Cabos Open 2021 Argentina Open |