Two of the most special tennis moments of 2025 happened at the Argentina Open, in February.
Diego Schwartzman, a French Open semifinalist and former world No. 8, retired from the sport in his home city of Buenos Aires, serenaded by the crowd with tears in his eyes. A day earlier, he had beaten Chile’s Nicolás Jarry, the previous year’s runner-up and a man a foot taller than him, to extend his career by 24 hours and send the home crowd into raptures.
“It was crazy,” Schwartzman said in a recent video interview.
SE QUEDA. 🇦🇷
With his career on the line, @dieschwartzman stuns last year’s finalist Jarry 7-6(10) 4-6 6-3 in Buenos Aires!! pic.twitter.com/9J3LOOKQX1
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) February 12, 2025
The tournament ended in an even wilder atmosphere, as João Fonseca, the 18-year-old Brazilian sensation, beat home favorite Francisco Cerúndolo to win his first ATP Tour title.
THE FUTURE IS NOW.
THE FUTURE IS JOAO.
Your 2025 @ArgentinaOpen champion, Joao Fonseca!! 🇧🇷 pic.twitter.com/1kjys7DrRi
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) February 16, 2025
Schwartzman, the most successful South American male player since the heyday of Gustavo Kuerten, who won three French Open titles and was year-end world No. 1 in 2000, and Juan Martin del Potro, who won the 2009 U.S. Open, is concerned about the future of elite-level tennis on the continent.
“The main guys on ATP are not thinking about South America,” said Schwartzman, who added that he maintains good relationships with the organization. “We have just three tournaments during the year, three tournaments and around 10 percent of the players in the top 100 are South Americans. So they have no opportunities.”
The February South American swing is a unique part of the men’s tennis calendar, but it is gradually being eroded. Argentina this year lost one of its 250-level events — the lowest rung on the ATP Tour — when the Córdoba Open was relocated to Mallorca, Spain. That left just the Argentina Open; the Rio de Janeiro Open, a 500-level event; and the Chile Open, another 250.
The announcement of the long-mooted ATP Masters 1000 event in Saudi Arabia puts further pressure on the continent’s standing. The new tournament, which will begin as early 2028 with a 56-player draw, will be non-mandatory, and its place in the calendar and its venue are yet to be confirmed.
In a briefing Thursday, ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi suggested that if played in February, the event could lead to two swings, one in South America and one in the Middle East, but the new Saudi tournament, with its 1,000-level status, would be the biggest and the primary draw for top players. Earlier, a spokesperson for the ATP Tour said that the process of organizing the event “will include extensive consultation with our members, alongside discussions around calendar optimisation. The goal is to ensure the most balanced and sustainable global calendar possible, in line with the Tour’s long-term vision.”
Sources with knowledge of the calendar negotiations for that event, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said that the tournament is set to require a reshuffling of the South American events in that month, because the owners of the ATP 500 events in Doha, Qatar and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, do not wish to relinquish their licenses. The new 1,000-level event will offer far more ranking points and prize money than what’s on offer in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, as well as having geographical and surface continuity from the events in Doha and Abu Dhabi, making it more attractive to players.
The South American swing is played on clay, while the tournaments in Doha and Abu Dhabi are played on hard courts. Top players, some of whom have complained about the calendar’s jumps back and forth across time zones and surfaces, could now stay on one surface in one region rather than switching courts and continents.
Gaudenzi suggested that there could be a switch from clay to hard in South America. Schwartzman has concerns about the possible changes.
“If you go to Rio you see how Fonseca is moving tennis, and it is not just to go and see Fonseca. You know how many kids are playing because of Fonseca now? Or how many kids are playing because (Sebastián) Báez or Cerúndolo, or anyone else who is winning matches. Or in Chile you have (Alejandro) Tabilo, Jarry, (Cristian) Garín. I think the ATP the last few years is not taking care of South America, that’s for sure. That’s just the opinion that I 100-percent have. And it’s not good because we are not just part of the history, we are part of it right now — in the present,” Schwartzman said.
Schwartzman, 32, realized at last year’s French Open that he was done as a player, having achieved more than he or anyone had thought possible. At five feet seven inches (170 cm) tall, he was always something of an underdog, relying on a potent forehand and “technique, gym and leg movements” to stay with players much more physically suited to the sport.
“I think being a shorter player helped me,” he said of his popularity with fans and those who follow the sport. “They saw me on court against these two-metres guys. And sometimes I was like a showman and that’s always helping the fans to be more happy during the matches.”
Like a David and Goliath situation? “Something like that.”
Schwartzman’s family history is defined by overcoming adversity. Born to a Jewish family, his Polish maternal great-grandfather was put on a train to a concentration camp in the 1940s but managed to escape. He took a boat to Argentina, speaking Yiddish but no Spanish, and built a family there; his father’s family came to South America from Russia.
As a child, Schwartzman showed signs of promise on the tennis court at Club Náutico Hacoaj, a Jewish sports club in Buenos Aires. But his family lost their livelihood when his father Ricardo’s business collapsed during the Argentinian economic crash at the turn of the century. His family began making and selling jewelry to try and earn the money needed to fund Schwartzman’s progress, selling bracelets at tournaments he was playing in. They could not afford to give him a Bar Mitzvah when he turned 13.
Schwartzman said he wasn’t quite aware of how dire the situation was, but “at some point, I think I realized,” he said.
Argentina has the fifth-biggest Jewish population of any country outside Israel, and Schwartzman is still practicing. There aren’t many elite Jewish athletes, and he is happy to be an inspiration to others.
Schwartzman’s breakthrough came in 2017, when he reached the U.S. Open quarterfinals. The following year, he reached the same stage at the French Open, before nearly doing the unthinkable in beating Rafael Nadal there. Schwartzman played breathtakingly well to lead the then 10-time champion by a set and a break, before the rain came and gave Nadal the chance to reset before winning the following day. Schwartzman did earn a win on clay over Nadal, beating him in straight sets at the Italian Open five years ago.
Schwartzman said the period that began in 2017 was “very important” in proving himself to his peers, who then “started to respect me a lot — more than I thought I maybe deserved. I think for a few years the guys didn’t want to play against me.” In 2017, he led Novak Djokovic by two sets to one in the third round of Roland Garros.
Schwartzman reached the U.S. Open quarterfinals again in 2019, where the eventual champion Nadal again stopped him in his tracks — Nadal and Djokovic beat him in the second week of a Grand Slam seven times, and Nadal was in the way once more when Schwartzman reached his only Grand Slam semifinal at Roland Garros in 2020.
Now living in Buenos Aires, he is still involved in tennis, working in the player relations team for Tennis Australia. Schwartzman fears that the way the sport is structured is holding back players from South America.
“It’s just about giving an opportunity to a part of the world that really needs it. Without that, tennis is just going to disappear there.” he said. “And that’s why I think it does not make sense. Now because I have more time, I like to have these kind of conversations with everyone — at least to know why they make these decisions.
“I think in the next 10 or 15 years, tennis is going to change, not just because tournaments are changing. The Saudis are coming with a new tournament and many things are going to change about the sport. I want to be part of that and being there, listening, watching and trying to help tennis around the world, obviously in South America.”
Schwartzman attributes the focus on other parts of the world ahead of South America down to an institutional mindset that “more money means better conditions,” Schwartzman said. “And obviously in South America you are not going to find more money.”
The wave of support behind rising star João Fonseca has put the microscope back on South America’s place in elite tennis. (Marcello Endelli / Getty Images)
Other elite players have spoken in support of expanding professional tennis’ presence in South America.
In February last year, three-time Grand Slam champion and former world No. 1 Andy Murray posted on X: “South America should have its own dedicated swing on the tennis tour with its own masters series. The way the fans support the tournaments there is incredible. Amazing atmospheres and is clearly part of their sporting culture. Vamos @atptour!”
Schwartzman believes that the financial and emotional investment in the rising talent of Fonseca is testament to how much attention can grow the sport.
“In Buenos Aires it was crazy about him,” he said. “So many Brazilians going to the stadium to watch him. And many Argentinians already watch him on court. Rio was crazy. South America after del Potro, we didn’t have a huge guy, and now there’s one from Brazil, the biggest country in South America.
“So imagine if Fonseca can do well in the future. It is going to be huge. He’s a very good young guy. He’s a good person. Good team around him so I hope he is going to do well.”
Schwartzman practiced with Fonseca ahead of losing to another prodigious talent, Carlos Alcaraz, in the Rio final of 2022. “João was special for sure, hitting the ball clean. He had a lot of power. But he had no idea how to control that power and every ball was going out. But the hitting was not normal for a 15 year old.”
Nor is the atmosphere that he generates at his matches, with Brazilians following him in droves. It started this year at the Australian Open, where he reached the third round — before getting to the same stage at Roland Garros and then Wimbledon. After beating him at Indian Wells in March, Britain’s Jack Draper said: “It’s amazing for the tour that we’ve got a really young superstar coming, especially from Brazil with such a big fanbase. It seems like every tournament he’s going to, there’s so many fans in the stadium. To be a part of that is really special for myself.”
The WTA also has a presence on the continent, with 250-level events throughout the season: in Bogotá, Colombia in March and April, and an event in São Paulo, Brazil which debuted in September. It has also increased its number of lower-level 125 events, from four in 2023 to six last year, with more to be confirmed for the remainder of 2025. Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia reached the French Open semifinals two years ago and has been ranked as high as No. 10, and her success — as well as the swell of interest in Fonseca — has seen promoters and federations pay more attention to local talent development in both the men’s and women’s games.
Schwartzman wants to be at the center of that growth.
“The main goal for me,” he said, “is that in 15, 20 years, maybe we can improve the structure and the conditions for the South American players.
“You need to be involved in the entire thing to know how how to improve things there.”