“This is tough on the big hitters,” said Martina Navratilova, the 18-time Grand Slam champion. “If you are fast and you can run around and go get the ball, you have an advantage. Someone like Nadal, he gets hurt.”

For a small player like Schwartzman, a deader ball is a blessing, because it rarely bounces out of his strike zone, and with an extra split second to tee up his shots, he can be incredibly dangerous when his opponents are serving.

One of the game’s top returners of serve of late, Schwartzman punished Sonego on Sunday on his second serve, which is becoming a habit. Sonego won just nine points, or 26 percent, on his second serve. As opponents prepare to serve that safer, slower, second ball, they know there is a decent chance that Schwartzman is going to try to jump on it and send it screaming toward the baseline. Norbert Gombos (6 feet 5 inches) of Slovakia, Schwartzman’s third round victim, has been the only Schwartzman opponent in Paris to win more than 40 percent of points on his second serve.

Schwartzman has won more than $8 million on tour, but he has never cracked the top 10 and has just three ATP Tour titles in his career. But his ranking has steadily climbed the past four years, far higher than most would have given him a chance in an era when the rising elite of the sport appear to be taller every year.

“You never know when your ceiling is going to be there, and you don’t know if you’re going to reach another quarterfinals or reach another final in a big tournament,” Schwartzman said on Sunday. “These tournaments are really nice. They give me a lot of confidence because every year I can improve, I can do a few more things better.”

Source: New York Times

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