French Open is Rafael Nadal's "second home", says Botic van de Zandschulp
Botic van de Zandschulp twice ran into a rampant Rafael Nadal at the Grand Slams last season. Building on his maiden Grand Slam singles quarterfinal appearance, which came at the 2021 US Open, the star looked good to repeat the same at both the French Open and Wimbledon in 2022, but faced the Nadal challenge at both tournaments.
The first of those matches came at the Spanish great's fortress, the French Open, a place the World No. 35 called Nadal's "second home," highlighting the comfort the former World No. 1 enjoys at the Paris Major.
The 27-year-old Dutchman reflected on the challenge, admitting that playing Nadal at the French Open in his first-ever career meeting against him made things all the more difficult. Suffice to say, he was left impressed by his opponent's level of tennis.
Van de Zandschulp spoke about the same on the sidelines of the Tata Open Maharashtra on Wednesday, after his win over Italian talent Flavio Cobolli.
"In the French Open, I played him (Rafael Nadal) for the first time," Botic van de Zandschulp said during a press conference, in response to a question from Sportskeeda.
"I think it was tough conditions to play him for the first time, on clay, at the French, it’s his second home almost. I was a little bit impressed there and it was tough for me to play against him there."
While he lost 3-6, 2-6, 4-6 in the third-round match against the Spaniard, who ended up lifting his 14th French Open title a few days later, he felt that he played much better in their Wimbledon clash. Their fourth-round clash in London was another straight-sets win for Nadal, but the Dutchman came very close to extending the match as he went down fighting in a third-set tiebreak.
At the end of it all, van de Zandschulp highly cherishes both those experiences.
"At Wimbledon, I played much better and I even had some chances to take it to a 4th set, and then you never know what happens. So yeah, these were really two nice experiences," van de Zandschulp explained.
"A very good player" - Rafael Nadal praised Botic van de Zandschulp after their Wimbledon match
The praise is mutual between Rafael Nadal and Botic van de Zandschulp. After their match at Wimbledon, the 22-time Grand Slam champion expressed his delight after defeating the "very good" van de Zandschulp.
With the Spaniard among the players that the Dutch star looks up to, hearing that would have likely served as great motivation for van de Zandschulp.
"A good match in general terms against a difficult player. I think a very good player," Nadal said in a press conference after their Wimbledon Round of 16 match.
Van de Zandschulp is the leader of an exciting age in Dutch tennis and is joined, among others, by talented youngsters such as Tim van Rijthoven and Tallon Griekspoor, both of whom also began their 2023 seasons in Pune.
Van Rijthoven first shone on the big stage after beating the likes of Taylor Fritz, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Daniil Medvedev to win the 2022 Libema Open. He then reached the fourth round at Wimbledon, where he took a set off Novak Djokovic. Meanwhile, Griekspoor won a record eight Challenger tour titles in a single season, back in 2021.
Van de Zandschulp also opened up about the rise of Dutch tennis, explaining why he believes he and his compatriots have been doing well and will continue to do so.
"I think we're all practicing together in the same place, so that's always good to make each other better. I think I was the first one to break through a little bit and then the other guys started to believe in themselves and got some really nice results," Van de Zandschulp said on the same.
"We have two more guys coming, hopefully they make it to the Top-100 soon," he added.