Botic van de Zandschulp has reached the semi-finals of the ATP tournament in Kitzbühel on Thursday. As a result, the Dutchman returns to the top hundred. Jesper de Jong lost in the quarter-finals of the clay court tournament in Umag, Croatia.
The 29-year-old Van de Zandschulp had a bad start to his quarter-final, which started later due to rain. He was already broken in his first service game by Thiago Seyboth Wild (ATP-132), but recovered. Van de Zandschulp forced a tiebreak and was clearly the strongest in it.
Van de Zandschulp (ATP-103) made the difference in the second set by breaking the Brazilian at 3-2. At 5-2, the Dutchman did it again. Van de Zandschulp used his third match point: 7-6 (2) 6-2.
In the semi-finals, Van de Zandschulp will face the top-seeded Alexander Bublik. It is the first time in over two years that Van de Zandschulp has reached the semi-finals of an ATP tournament. He lost in the final in Munich in April 2023 to the Dane Holger Rune.
Thanks to his good results in Kitzbühel, Van de Zandschulp is about to return to the top hundred. Due to his poor performance in recent months, he had recently fallen out of it. Van de Zandschulp is currently the world number 103 and is virtually 86th.
Jesper de Jong Loses Four Days After First Final Spot
De Jong was no match for Spaniard Carlos Taberner in the quarter-finals of the clay court tournament in Umag, Croatia: 7-5 and 6-3.
De Jong made a visibly exhausted impression in Umag. The Dutchman was able to keep up with Taberner for a long time in the first set, who had sent the top-seeded Francisco Cerúndolo home in the previous round. In the final phase of the first set, he still had to bow his head.
That broke De Jong’s resistance: he fell behind early in the second set and was unable to make up for it. The North Hollander was also visibly bothered by the bad court in Croatia. The balls barely bounced. The organizers tried to repair the court during the game, but without success.
“I am of course disappointed, but I thought he played very well,” De Jong told NU.nl afterwards. “It was almost impossible to get through, because he hardly made any mistakes and I had to do everything myself. And if you are already running on fumes, that is very difficult.”
De Jong was clearly not happy with the court in Croatia. “The courts are so dramatic this year that it is almost dangerous. It is quite shocking. We always have to fill out an evaluation of the tournament. But I can’t imagine anyone indicating that the courts here are normal.”
De Jong had been in the final of an ATP tournament for the first time on Sunday in Bastad, Sweden. He then lost in three sets to the Italian Luciano Darderi. De Jong made a leap in the world ranking due to his final place. He climbed from 106th to 83rd place.