Never stop believing! Dutchman Van De Zandschulp will fight for his maiden title

The final of the clay tournament in Munich today will pit Denmark’s Holger Rune and the Netherlands’ Botice Van De Zandchulp against each other. The 19-year-old Dane is the favourite for the match, but there are still a few circumstances that are good to know before the final match of the event in Germany.

Botic Van De Zandschulp will celebrate his 28th birthday this year and it’s only been a year since he started appearing regularly at ATP tournaments. Until then, he had mostly played in challengers, tried Grand Slam qualifiers and occasionally succeeded in them. Only in qualifiers, that is. Up until a certain point.

He did something unique at the 2021 US Open. If you had caught a glimpse of him here on August 25, after clearly losing the tiebreak in the opening set of the first qualifying match, you certainly wouldn’t have bet on seeing him in the quarterfinals at the final Grand Slam of the season even thirteen days later. And that’s exactly what the Wageningen native did.

The Dutchman lost all the first sets in the qualifying matches, but ultimately walked away as the winner. He did the same in the first three rounds of the main event. In the second, even against the clear favourite Casper Ruud.

For the sake of illustration, let’s add that Van De Zandschulp was given odds of over 7:1 before the match. He still won the match (3-6,6-4,6-3,6-4) and reached the quarterfinals at the US Open 2021. The then later winner Daniil Medvedev was beyond his strength. The Dutch fighter showed his determination against him as well, going from 0-2 down in sets to take the fourth set, which he lost only at the end (5-7).

Van De Zandschulp just won’t quit. He’s considered a fighter that nothing can break and never stops believing. He is very relaxed on court and his big weapon is his forehand. With that, he is able to go from defense to offense incredibly fast.

Munich tournament

This brings us to April 2022. The Dutchman arrived at the clay tournament in Munich after very solid results in the first months of the year (third round at the Australian Open and Indiana Wells). In the Bavarian capital, he once again defeated Ruud and proved his indomitability once again in the semi-finals.

He lost the opening set against Serbian Kecmanovic, won the second set in a tiebreak and after winning 6-4 he reached his first final on the ATP circuit. In the final, he faced young Dane Holger Rune. The Dutch tennis player started well and led 4-1. However, after two games lost, he required treatment and had to abandon the match due to chest problems.

The year has come and gone and the line-up for the Munich final is identical. Holger Rune enters as the favourite. He hasn’t lost a set in the tournament so far. He has not allowed more than four games per set to any opponent in his defence so far and has a chance to win his fourth title in one year.

Botic Van De Zandschulp is looking for his maiden triumph on the circuit. He didn’t stumble in any set on his way to the final, although he needed to win twice in tiebreaks. Yesterday, he ended his battle with world No. 10 Taylor Fritz victoriously in a shortened game. We’ll see how the match plays out this afternoon. But one thing is clear: The Dutchman will fight to the last ball.

Source: ATP, US Open