WHAT HAPPENED: Qualifer Botic van de Zandschulp added his name to the US Open record book on Sunday with a titanic rousing upset of No. 11 seed Diego Schwartzman under the Louis Armstrong Stadium roof on a drizzling Sunday.
Holding his cool and composure and coming up big in the closing moments of the match, the No. 117 van de Zandschulp held off a furious comeback from Schwartzman for a rollicking 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 5-7, 6-1 win and a spot in the quarterfinals.
The Dutchman never changed his expression or lost his inner belief even when he lost a two match points in the fourth set and two more in the last game before claiming the four-hour-and-20-minute marathon to become the first qualifier to make the Flushing Meadows quarterfinals since Gilles Muller in 2008 and only the third ever on the men's side (including Nicolas Escudé in 1999).
“I don’t have words for it,” van de Zandschulp told the cheering fans in his on-court interview after the match.
He also added his name to his country’s illustrious tennis honor roll. He is the first Grand Slam quarterfinalist since Sjeng Schalken at the 2003 US Open and 2004 Wimbledon. At Flushing Meadows, the most famous Dutchman quarterfinalist a might be Paul Haarhuis who beat top seed Boris Becker before losing a rousing primetime match to Jimmy Connors in 1991.
“I don’t think anybody back home expected me to reach the quarterfinals,” admitted the 25-year-old van de Zandschulp. “I think they are amazed and hopefully proud.”
This was a roller coaster ride for the Dutchman in his first US Open.
He was nearly flawless in the opening two sets holding his own with the tenacious Schwartzman in lengthy baseline rallies and supported by big serving. He never dropped serve in either set and in the second set the lanky right-hander never faced a breakpoint.
However, possibly doubt, some nerves, and a whole lot more errors and double faults began to creep into the Dutchman’s game from 4-2 in the third set when he lost his serve for the first time in the match.
Given a bit of a lifeline, the 5-foot-7 Schwartzman clung to it to claw his way back into the match. In the fourth set, with the crowd urging him on, he saved a double match point in the 10th game. And when he won the set to push the match into a fifth, all of the momentum looked to be on his side.
But van de Zandschulp stood tall, jumping on top with a service break in the second game. He broke again for a 5-1 lead. He had a few more nervous moments in the final game, squandering two more match points, before slamming in the 15th ace of the match for match point 5. Schwartzman netted a forehand and it was over.
WHAT IT MEANS: Presently at No. 117, with this win, van de Zandschulp will almost certainly break into the top 100 ATP rankings after the tournament. It has been a steady climb for him as he had cracked the Top 300 and then Top 200 in 2019.
Having beaten two Top 20 players this week already (he also defeated No. 8 seed Casper Ruud in the second round), van de Zandschulp will set his sights on even a bigger upset next, No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev.
MATCH POINT: Only the legendary “The Flying Dutchman” Tom Okker has reached the US Open final, losing to Arthur Ashe on the Forest Hills grass in the first Open in 1968. Can van de Zandschulp be the second Dutch US Open finalist?
