Tennis player Botic van de Zandschulp did not manage to cause a big surprise at the Australian Open. In the first round of the Grand Slam tournament in Melbourne, he lost 6-4 7-5 6-3 to the Italian Jannik Sinner, the number four in the world. The match in the Rod Laver Arena, the main stadium of the Australian Open, lasted 2 hours and 34 minutes.
After more than two and a half hours, Van de Zandschulp ended the game with a forehand that ended up out of bounds. That was on Sinner’s first match point, which the Dutchman managed to break for the fifth time.
Van de Zandschulp only managed to win a service game against the Italian once. The Dutchman broke Sinner at love early in the third set and took a 2-0 lead, but was unable to hold onto that lead for long. The world number 59 immediately surrendered his first service game on center court, but he managed to keep up well in the remainder of the first set. However, it was not possible to equalize and at 5-4 Sinner served out the set convincingly.
In the second set the score was tied at 5-5, but in the eleventh game a number of carelessness cost Van de Zandschulp the set. The Dutchman cleared four break points in the first game of the third set and then saw that Sinner played the worst service game of the match. However, the world top player recovered well, remained calm and won four games in a row. Not much later he had his first victory of 2024. He won 106 points, compared to 89 for the Veenendaler.
Four Dutch people
The 22-year-old Sinner is one of the contenders for the title behind top favorite Novak Djokovic. The Italian reached the final of the ATP Finals at the end of last year and subsequently gave his country the final victory in the Davis Cup.
For Sinner it was only his first official match of the season. He only played a number of demonstration matches in the run-up to the Australian Open.
Van de Zandschulp (28), coached by Swedish coach Johan Örtegren since the end of last year, was one of four Dutch players in the singles of the Australian Open. Tallon Greekpoor and Jesper de Jong are still participating in the men’s race and Arantxa Rus in the women’s race. (AP)