Botic van de Zandschulp has ensured that two Dutch men have made it to the fourth round of Wimbledon for the first time in twenty years. The tennis player defeated his French opponent Richard Gasquet (7-5, 2-6, 7-6(7), 6-1) in four sets on Saturday. A day earlier, grand slam debutant Tim van Rijthoven had already secured a place in the last sixteen.
Number 25 in the world Van de Zandschulp did not have an easy time against Gasquet for a long time. In both the first and third set, he survived set points from the experienced tennis player, who has already reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon twice. In the first part of the match, Van de Zandschulp’s service did not go as planned, which resulted in a good number of double faults, especially in set one. But Gasquet didn’t play clear either. The result was a balanced game in which the initiative kept shifting to one of the two players.
After Gasquet had lost the tiebreak in the third set, the match image became a lot more unambiguous. Gasquet didn’t seem to believe in it anymore, made a lot of unnecessary mistakes and was quickly broken twice by Van de Zandschulp. He immediately used his first match point.
Nadal
In the fourth round, Van de Zandschulp will probably face Rafael Nadal. The Spanish tennis icon, placed second at Wimbledon, will have to win his third round match against the Italian Lorenzo Sonego later on Saturday. For Van de Zandschulp, the fourth round is in any case his best performance at a grand slam since he reached the quarterfinals at the US Open last year.
Read more about the other Dutchman in the fourth round: Tim van Rijthoven is completely loose in London
The Dutch tennis men were last so strongly represented in the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2002. At the time, Sjeng Schalken and Richard Krajicek even went one round further: they were both eliminated in the quarterfinals.
The next match of a Dutchman is scheduled for Sunday afternoon: Tim van Rijthoven will play in the fourth round against number one of the placement list Novak Djokovic. He will not enter the game as a favorite against the six-time Wimbledon winner. But itself, the thrill of the grass tennis season takes everything into account, he said Friday. “I go into every game with the idea that I can win. Also against Djokovic.”