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sport">At the end of May, Van de Zandschulp also met his childhood idol, then at Roland Garros. On his favorite tournament and surface, the Dutchman went down in three sets (6-3, 6-2, 6-4), but on the grass of Wimbledon he thought he had a better chance prior to the meeting.
sport">At first, he was certainly not disappointed with that thought. The first set was equal, although Nadal already managed to score five aces in the first seven games. Nevertheless, Van de Zandschulp kept pace with the two-time Wimbledon winner for a long time. He didn’t have to bow his head until well into that opening set, but that was directly at a crucial moment. At 5-4, the Spaniard managed to break his Dutch opponent and the first set was won.
Nadal serves
Ⓒ ANP/HH
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sport">Van de Zandschulp seemed to have received a mental hit from that late break, because he started the second set extremely sloppily. Due to many unnecessary mistakes by ‘BvdZ’, Nadal quickly ran out to 3-0. It then continued to falter for the Dutchman, who lost the set 6-2 and made the last point with a double foul.
Resurrection
sport">So it seemed to be going fast on Center Court, but at the start of set three, Van de Zandschulp immediately placed a break. That would have been a nice boost, had it not been for Nadal to immediately undo that break. The Spaniard then quickly ran out to 4-2, without really playing great himself. Van de Zandschulp simply allowed too many points with sloppy play. Incidentally, Nadal himself sometimes had some great delights at home.
sport">In the final phase of the third set, Van de Zandschulp struggled a bit and fought back to 5-5. With a great service game, he even pulled out a tie-break moments later. In it, he sold his skin dearly, which included a glorious 30-stroke back and forth rally – the longest of the lot. The Spaniard pulled the longest end of that rally, then thundered through and received three match points. These were expertly removed by Van de Zandschulp, but at number four it was still hit, so that the hope of a 23rd grand slam title for Nadal remains fully alive. And what about the improvement Van de Zandschulp hoped for in advance compared to Roland Garros? That came for the number 25 in the world ranking.
Joy at Nadal after his victory over Van de Zandschulp
Ⓒ ANP/HH
—
Tenth win over Dutchman
sport">With his victory, Nadal has managed to beat a Dutchman for the tenth time in his career. The 36-year-old Spaniard, who has never lost to a Dutch opponent, met Robin Haase at Wimbledon twelve years ago. Nadal then won in five sets, after trailing 2-1 in sets. Haase lost a total of three times to the Spanish high demand, also in 2016 in Doha and in 2017 at Roland Garros.
sport">In his career, Nadal also won against Igor Sijsling, Thiemo de Bakker, Raemon Sluiter, Peter Wessels and Sjeng Schalken. In 2004, Schalken was the first compatriot to play against Nadal. He lost in Auckland 7-6 (2) 6-4.
sport">View Nadal’s match point below
sport">Bron: Discovery+
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