Van de Zandschulp starts pursuit too late against strong Nadal

Botic van de Zandschulp was not able to provide a surprise in the eighth finals at Wimbledon. De Veenendaler started his pursuit much too late against two-time winner Rafael Nadal: 4-6, 2-6, 6-7 (6).

Due to the elimination of Van de Zandschulp, the last Dutchman has disappeared from singles at Wimbledon. But Van de Zandschulp and Tim van Rijthoven gave the tournament a lot of color from a Dutch perspective with their place in the eighth finals.

It has been twenty years since two Dutchmen reached the fourth round at the most important tennis tournament in the world. In 2002, Richard Krajicek and Sjeng Schalken reached the quarterfinals at the time.

“Of course I’m disappointed, because in the last set I get some chances to win the set,” said Van de Zandschulp. “I think I played well in the first and third set and that the difference with Nadal is small.”

In the end, Van de Zandschulp doesn’t blame himself much. “It is Nadal’s class that the moment I play well, he can still take the set.”

Nadal and Van de Zandschulp also met at Roland Garros, when the Spaniard awarded his opponent three games less than in London.

Van de Zandschulp also had no chance this time around, although he was still able to compete early in the game after he had cleared two break points in his first storage innings.

Van de Zandschulp did little wrong, but when he saved at 4-5 to stay in the set, he did. He produced no fewer than three dropouts and gave Nadal the opening set unexpectedly and completely unnecessary.

Van de Zandschulp forced his first break in the second set with two wonderful passing strokes, but he did not capitalize on it. A game later, he was broken when he found the net twice.

For a long time, Nadal was barely able to catch any errors and steamed through to 5-2. Van de Zandschulp handed in the set with his sixth double fault.

There was a moment of hope for the global number 25, when he cashed in on his second breaking point in the third set. The Spaniard immediately repaired the damage, but failed when he served for the win at 5-3.

Van de Zandschulp came in at 5-5 and suddenly started to really believe in it. But Nadal’s dip turned out to be only temporary, although he lost three match points in the tiebreak at 6-3.

On the fourth game point for Nadal, it was hit by a missed smash by Van de Zandschulp. The Dutchman then left the Center Court somewhat disappointed.

Van de Zandschulp will only be back in action in two weeks, then at the clay tournament in Hamburg. “I can look back on a good Wimbledon and have been able to play many pots on grass,” said the Dutchman.

“There is certainly still improvement, for example in taking time away from my opponent. That is not quite in my system yet, but we will work hard on that again.”