Diego’s Anglo-Saxon surname comes from his German great-grandparents.

He has been nicknamed “Gato” (Cat) since he was a kid (which is the same nickname of countryman Gaston Gaudio). He is a good friend of fellow ATP pro Jose Acasuso.

He had no idols growing up, but followed Sampras and Rafter. Now he follows Gaudio and was “really happy” when Gaudio won Roland Garros in 2004. He grew up swimming and playing basketball as well as tennis, at the Obera Tennis Club.

At 14, he took a bus 100 km to Posadas to train with Acasuso and two years later moved to Buenos Aires and played Futures events for two years.

In 2002, the Argentine dollar devalued, which caused him hard times. At 22, he spent four months in Italy and Germany at clubs. He came with just $ 500, and had to stay with families and at cheap hotels. It was hard for him to be away from his family, but he is proud to have done it.

Diego was on the verge of stopping his tennis career in 2005, because he was out of money and the results were not arriving.

His objectives for 2006 were to reach the Top 100 and to travel with his coaches and physical trainer (he’s coached by Hernan Suarez and Oscar Rodriguez). He also works with Daniel Nizzero on training.

In 2007, for the first time, he finished the year in the Top 100, reaching his best ranking at place 73 !

In 2008, he has been coached by Diego Moyano and his fitness trainer is Gabriel Thompson.

In 2009, due to two important knee surgeries, Diego only played a few tournaments at the beginning of the year. He decided to work again with Oky Rodriguez to be fit again in 2010.

His father Ernesto is a dentist and his mother Susana is a music teacher. He has one brother : Guillermo (30) who is a tennis teacher, and two sisters : Tanya (22) who is a model and studies in Buenos Aires and Cybel (17) who is at the college in their hometown. 

He likes music and surfing on the Web. His other hobbies are car racing (TC 2000) and of course, football ! He supports Argentinia’s national football team “Boca Juniors”.

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