“Who is Gijs Brouwer?” No madness around Venhuizen tennis player after US Open success

In search of the Gijs madness in Venhuizen, we start our search in a logical place. Gijs hit his first balls at the tennis club De Drieban in Venhuizen as a little boy of about five years old. Pride undoubtedly dominates the tennis park, but on Thursday morning the entrance gate is and remains closed. Not a tennis player in sight.

So we go to the center of the village. But here, too, the enthusiasm still needs to be stirred up. The large screens in café De Roode Leeuw – to watch Brouwer’s matches en masse – are not there. “The Gijs madness? I haven’t heard of that yet,” says the manager. “But if there is interest, we will of course do it. Nice that he is doing so well. Do I know him? No, to be honest, I don’t think he comes here often.”

“Gijs Brouwer? Oh, the tennis player,” says a woman at the Vomar. “I’ve read about that. I’m not going to watch tonight, because I don’t like tennis.”

During the last Olympic Games, the whole of Wervershoof was under the spell of Irene Schouten. And the middle class also benefited from its success, with, among other things, tomcats and hamburgers. In Venhuizen it is not that far yet. “The Gijs Brouwer tompoes? It doesn’t exist here,” says Ina Ruiter of bakery Koning. “Actually, only the people involved in the tennis club know him.”

Pride

Such as an enthusiastic resident of Venhuizen, who has just done her shopping. “It’s cool that he’s doing so well. I’m very curious how it goes tonight. I don’t know him personally. But it makes me proud that someone from Venhuizen is doing so well. And that from our club. will definitely be in front of the tube again tonight. No matter what time it gets.”

She also notices that there is no question of Gijs madness yet. “But maybe it will come when he wins a few more times.” A village resident has her doubts. “We are sober West Frisians.”