Botic van de Zandschulp crashed hard against Daniil Medvedev in Rotterdam | Sport

Van de Zandschulp (27) had yesterday the biggest trouble with Quentin Halys in the first round. The number 35 in the world was recently still slightly injured and therefore did not play in the won Davis Cup match against Slovakia.

Medvedev (27) is playing his third tournament of the year in Rotterdam. At the Australian Open, the number 11 came in the world rankings no further than the third round. In three previous meetings, Medvedev won eight of the nine sets and gave the highest placed Dutchman little chance.

In Ahoy, Medvedev started much better than Van de Zandschulp. The world top player got a chance to immediately win the first four games via a double break. He didn’t succeed and that’s why ‘VDZ’ seemed to come back in the game. However, the two break points on Medvedev’s serve were not used. The Russian thus retained his pleasant lead.

Medvedev left three opportunities for a break unused in the fifth game and left the Dutchman alive. Stoically, the Russian continued to play tennis and did not let himself be distracted by the missed opportunities and came through a love game at 5-2. With strong rally play and a nice lob, the pupil of the Dutch manager Olivier van Lindonk put a new break on the service of the home player: 6-2.

In the second set, the Wageninger immediately took a different approach. Van de Zandschulp created opportunities to immediately break his opponent. He left this one and Medvedev escaped by ‘just’ winning the game. In tennis the creed is often: ‘if you miss the chances of a break, the other will take it’. The same was true for the second set. The Dutchman had the chances, but due to a failed drop shot, it was the Russian who placed the opening break in the second set and prevented 2-0.

However, Van de Zandschulp did not give in. The pupil of trainer Peter Lucassen continued to create chances, but the former number 1 in the world skillfully served away the break points. With offensive play in his own service games, the Dutchman tried to squeeze everything out of it. This was accompanied by success, but also by nice passes from Medvedev.

In the remainder of the game, the image of the game hardly changed. Van de Zandschulp was way too sloppy (28 unnecessary fouls over the entire match) and the level of the Russian turned out to be too high for the Dutchman today.

It was the first time since 2004 that three Dutchmen reached the second round of the Rotterdam tennis tournament.

Later tonight, Gijs Brouwer (ATP-160) will play on the center court against the Dane Holger Rune (ATP-9) for a place in the quarterfinals that are scheduled for tomorrow. Tallon Greek track (ATP-61) qualified for this round yesterday by somewhat surprisingly defeating Alexander Zverev (ATP-17).