Botic van de Zandschulp (26) strolls across the center court with his modest step. Almost nothing shows that he plays one of the most important games of his life. At Wimbledon. The highest podium. The position cannot be read from his face. Well on the scoreboard. After two hours and 22 minutes, it can be seen that Van de Zandschulp has to recognize his superior in Rafael Nadal in three sets: 6-4, 6-2 and 7-6.
The Spaniard celebrates his routine victory together with the audience of The All England Club, while the Dutchman modestly leaves the 100-year track as a goodbye. After the fourth round, Wimbledon is over for Van de Zandschulp, but again he has taken a step forward in his career. Unfortunately, due to the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian tennis players, he does not receive any extra points for the world ranking.
The continuous advance of Van de Zandschulp is impressive. After previous successes on hard court and clay, he has now also shown that he can handle it on grass. The best Dutch tennis player now belongs to the global sub-top, but he is not a sensation. For that, Van de Zandschulp simply lacks charisma for the general public. He lacks a Nadal’s charisma. But according to Van de Zandschulp, this is precisely where his strength lies. “Better stoic than going crazy,” is his personal slogan.
And with that, Van de Zandschulp will always divide the audience. Tennis aficionados will enjoy his rock hard forehands, others will wear him out as dull. Like a kind of Dutch Ivan Lendl, who defeated his opponents by machine in the past. Like a cool killer. Like he doesn’t care where or who he’s playing against. And that is exactly the balance that Van de Zandschulp was looking for. Now that he has managed to control his emotions, success follows.
Tennis insiders have known him for much longer as an exceptional talent. Like an intelligent tennis player, who had the skills to make it to the top. But also as a thinker who talked himself down during competitions. In December 2016 he made his national name for the first time by beating Robin Haase in the final of the Dutch National Championships. He jumped from 1,100 to 400 in the world rankings.
It took four years for everything to fall into place. The year 2021 became the year of his big breakthrough. On the hard courts in New York, Van de Zandschulp put himself in the spotlight in front of an international audience. He reached the quarter-finals against Daniil Medvedev via the qualifiers.
Opposite of Nadal
Once on the court, the audience saw the stoic tennis player, who Van de Zandschulp wants most to be. He repeated that at Wimbledon last week. His coach Peter Lucassen also thinks that Botics’ excellent balance on the track is great quality. “That tranquility is a bit of his identity, and we are also working on that,” Lucassen told NRC last year. “If Botic plays well, he has a lot of overview and he can’t be easily out of balance.”
In terms of personality, Van de Zandschulp is the opposite of the extroverted Nadal. Nadal pumps himself up at the important moments. Clenches his fists. Is a real crowd pleaser. Van de Zandschulp needs rest on the track. He prefers not to deal with peripheral matters. Barely shows emotion. Not when Van de Zandschulp enters the center court of Wimbledon against Rafael Nadal. And not if he leaves there just before nightfall as a loser.
Again. Van de Zandschulp previously lost to the Spaniard in the third round of Roland Garros. On the grass of Wimbledon, the Dutchman offers himself more opportunities in advance. It doesn’t bother him that the public would be in favor of Nadal. Van de Zandschulp would shut itself off from this. And that made him more like the former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek, who won the title in 1996 with ‘stoic’ tennis. That is no longer an option for Van de Zandschulp. Nadal now faces American Taylor Fritz in the quarterfinals.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of 5 July 2022