At the end of last week, it flew around the world, a mine that is usually ridiculed even at regional-level tournaments. The 26th player in the world, Botici van de Zandschulp, competed in the semifinals of the event in Queens.
The best Dutch player on the circuit in the match with the later winner of the tournament, Matteo Berrettini, did not hit the ball with a racket at all, but did not fire it high over the court so that it landed far behind the spectators.
The ball completely disappeared from the view of the cameras and the match commentator shook his head incomprehensibly at the comic error. “My God,” he relieved himself on a live broadcast on Amazon Prime TV.
Van de Zandschulp returned to the situation in a few days after the seventh-seeded American Francis Tiafoe made the least similar flight in the first round of the tournament in Eastbourne. In a duel with the Kazakh Alexander Bublik in the third set, Tiafoe served in a match from right to left. Respectively, he should have served that way. But the ball from his racket incomprehensibly flew right off the court.
“So I’m not sure which (service) was worse. If mine, or Francis Tiafoe, “Van de Zandschulp asked in a tweet accompanied by a smiley face.
Tiafoe topped up in the decisive set of the disgraceful canal.
