Diego Schwartzman faces Dusan Lajovic and Dinel Altmaier takes on Alexi Popyrin in the round of 64 at teh ATP Tour’s Barcelona Open. Damien Kayat previews.
2024 ATP Tour – ATP 500
Barcelona Open
Real Club de Tenis Barcelona
Selected Ro 64 Matches – 16 April
Diego Schwartzman 1/1 | Dusan Lajovic 77/100
How much more of this can 31-year-old Diego Schwartzman take? The diminutive Argentine was once ranked as high as eighth in the world, building a career out of brilliant consistency on clay courts. A former Roland Garros semi-finalist, the indefatigable baseliner also reached Masters 1000 finals in Rome and Madrid.
But the wheels have fallen off dramatically over the past few years. He had a mini-renaissance at last year’s Shanghai Masters, beating Taylor Fritz en route to a round of 16 finish. But he has now gone 0-8 in tour-level matches since that occasion.
In fact, the pugnacious Argentine is still yet to register a tour-level win this season. I think retirement is on the cards if he isn’t able to find some traction during this clay-court swing. A semi-finalist here as recently as 2022, Schwartzman should suit these pretty slow conditions to a tee.
He has managed to wiggle his way through qualifying and will next face fellow clay-court specialist Dusan Lajovic.
33-year-old Serbian journeyman Dusan Lajovic doesn’t come into Barcelona in scintillating form. The heavy-hitting baseliner arrives off the back of three consecutive defeats. However, there have been some rays of light for the veteran Serb this season.
He reached back-to-back quarter-finals during the Golden Swing and he is playing on surfaces that perfectly suit his style. Lest we forget, Lajovic won his second career title at last year’s Banja Luka Open, beating World No.1 Novak Djokovic in the process.
A former Monte Carlo Masters finalist, Lajovic is definitely approaching the twilight of his solid career. But he will always remain a dangerous prospect on these surfaces and he won’t be feeling overly sentimental about the state of Schwartzmann’s career.
Verdict: Lajovic to win in straight sets 18/10
Schwartzman actually leads a close head-to-head rivalry 3-2. But the Serb won their most recent encounter with ease at last year’s Rio Open. And I don’t see any reason why that will change this week.
Schwartzman is just being constantly outhit from the back of the court and Lajovic has the weight of shot to overwhelm the Argentine (regardless of the speed of the court).
Daniel Altmaier 14/10 | Alexei Popyrin 11/20
This promises to be an engaging clash between two entertaining- if inconsistent- players. 25-year-old German Daniel Altmaier hasn’t evolved as much as he would have liked since that breakthrough fourth round run at the 2020 French Open.
The German idolizes both Federer and Wawrinka and he has the single-handed backhand to prove it. He has just really struggled with consistency over the past few years. But he certainly has what it takes to be competitive on clay. He reached a maiden ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final at last year’s Madrid Open.
He also memorably beat Jannik Sinner at Roland Garros, seeing off the wunderkind in the 5th longest match in French Open history. But he has been pretty underwhelming this season, amassing a disappointing 5-8 year-to-date record.
Having said that, he did pull off one of the biggest surprises of the season with a stunning win over Zverev in Acapulco. He is an enigmatic talent who should prove dangerous during this leg of the season.
24-year-old Aussie Alexie Popyrin has managed to compile a pretty decent season despite nagging injury issues that have forced him to withdraw from a few events. He pushed Djokovic to four sets in the second round of the Aussie Open and he hasn’t looked back since.
He reached the semi-finals in Qatar and he looked tremendous in Monte Carlo last week. He really owned those ultra-slow conditions, hitting an astonishing 51 winners to just 18 unforced errors in his victory over Moutet.
He then picked up arguably the biggest win of his career with a straight-sets triumph over Andrey Rublev. It perhaps shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise considering Popyrin won a clay-court title in Umag last year. He is a real handful when he is at peak physical efficacy, utilizing admirable variety to keep his opponents guessing.
Verdict: Popyrin to win in straight sets 27/20
Altmaier won their only previous encounter at last year’s Cincinnati Open, narrowly overcoming the Aussie in a lucky loser battle. I just think that Popyrin has all the momentum here. He has beaten Lehecka and Rublev in recent weeks and he seems to be forging a solid clay-court identity.
