Van de Zandschulp, who had his new coach Raemon Sluiter with him, is number 86 in the world rankings. The 19-year-old Fonseca is in 45th place. In the first set, Van de Zandschulp was the first to give up his serve, but he came back. In a long game at 6-5, he used his sixth set point for the set win.
Still without new coach Raemon Sluiter: Botic van de Zandschulp loses in the first round in China
In the second set, Fonseca took a break lead at 3-3, but Van de Zandschulp leveled the score at 5-5. In the tiebreak, the Dutchman made it 5-0. At 6-2 he struck on the first of four match points.
Botic van de Zandschulp has been ogling Raemon Sluiter for some time and jokes: ‘This weekend we will see how honest he is’
“I served well and the return also went quite well,” Van de Zandschulp summarized his match in a short interview on the court. “This is the first tournament we are doing together and I am enjoying it,” he said about his collaboration with Sluiter.
In the second round, Van de Zandschulp will face Eliot Spizzirri. The American qualifier won in the first round against Spaniard Pedro Martínez in two sets (6-4 6-1).
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Suzan Lamens loses to Osaka in Japan in three sets
Suzan Lamens failed to surprise Naomi Osaka at the Osaka tennis tournament. The number 1 of the Netherlands lost in the second round 6-7 (6) 6-3 2-6 to the first seeded Japanese.
It was the second time that Lamens (26) faced Osaka, who was one year older, on the court. Last year she lost 2-6 2-6 in Rosmalen. In Osaka, where the Dutch woman won the title in 2024, she performed much better against the four-time Grand Slam winner.
Lamens turned a 0-2 deficit into a 4-2 lead in the first set. However, she surrendered her serve at 5-4 and then narrowly lost the tiebreak. The global number 57 from Berkel and Rodenrijs came back strongly in the second set, but had to admit her superiority to the former number 1 in the world in the third set.