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'One more time,' Diego Schwartzman and Dominic Thiem gear up to make their last appearances in Roland Garros

Originally posted on FirstSportz | By Achintya A A | Last updated 5/18/24

Dominic Thiem and Diego Schwartzman are both set to retire this year, in Vienna and Buenos Aires, respectively. These retirement announcements came as a shock to tennis fans last week and everyone then expected them to be handed wildcards to every tournament they are planning to play now.

The two icons have had some of their best results in Roland Garros, where they have gone toe to toe with the Big Three, with Thiem even making a couple of finals. Naturally, fans wanted the French Open committee to give them both wildcards to the main draw and were disappointed upon the announcement of the wildcard entries. Many speculated that this list may have been prepared well in advance when Schwartzman and Thiem hadn’t made any announcements.

The two players, who are very good friends, arrived in Paris today to kick off their practice sessions before they begin their French Open campaigns playing the qualifying rounds, which is an unusual scenario for them. Schwartzman posted a photo with Thiem after the session, with the caption “Let’s try one more time,” leaving their supporters emotional.

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A post shared by Diego Schwartzman (@dieschwartzman)

They begin their final runs in the French capital this Sunday and will have to make it through three rounds of qualifying to relive their glory days when they were dominating the contestants in the main draw.

Roland Garros snubs Thiem and Schwartzman by denying wildcards

After news broke out of Dominic Thiem and Diego Schwartzman retiring this year, everyone expected them to have glamorous send-offs at the French Open, where they were almost unstoppable just a couple of years ago.

In an all-time classic match, the two of them faced off against each other in the quarterfinal of the 2020 edition of Roland Garros, where Schwartzman triumphed in a nail-biting five-setter. They could not qualify for the main draw of the clay court slam this year due to a dip in their rankings and were looking forward to getting wildcards, with Schwartzman even joking about it in a comment on Roland Garros’ post about his retirement.

Out of the eight wildcards the tournament is allowed to give out, six have been received by Frenchman, which suggests that the list may well have been made long before the retirement announcements. The players who have been granted main draw entry are – Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA), Harold Mayot (FRA), Terrence Atmane (FRA), Richard Gasquet (FRA), Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard (FRA), Alexandre Muller (FRA), Adam Walton (AUS) and Nicolas Moreno De Alboran (USA).

This article first appeared on FirstSportz and was syndicated with permission.

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