Qualifier Botic van de Zandschulp made it a double Dutch celebration on Sunday when he stunned 11th seed Diego Schwartzman in a major upset at the US Open.
Hot on the heels of Max Verstappen’s victory at the Dutch Grand Prix, Holland can now boast a Flushing Meadows quarter-finalist after Van de Zandschulp won a five-set marathon 6-3 6-4 5-7 5-7 6-1.
The world number 117 raced away with the first two sets and was a break up in the third when Argentinian Schwartzman mounted a comeback.
When Van de Zandschulp squandered two match points in the fourth the momentum seemed to be firmly with Schwartzman.
Botic van de Zandschulp entering the #USOpen 🔹 9th year as a pro🔸 0 Tour-level finals🔹 5 Tour level match wins🔸 Career-high ranking of 117🔹 Best Grand Slam result of R2 He is now into the quarterfinals. Never. Stop. Believing. pic.twitter.com/98sCI8C3QV — US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 5, 2021
But the 25-year-old somehow managed to reset, grabbing a double break in the decider and finishing Schwartzman off with a nerve-jangling fifth match point to become only the third qualifier to reach the quarter-finals in US Open history.
Van de Zandschulp said on court: “I don’t really have words for it. I played so many matches here, some of them from the brink of defeat, but I pulled through every match.
“For the first time in the tournament I won the first set. Even the first two – and I still almost ended up losing the match.”
Van de Zandschulp will face world number two and second seed Daniil Medvedev in the last eight.
The Russian was ruthless as he dispatched Britain’s Dan Evans, the 24th seed, 6-3 6-4 6-3.
Medvedev said: “Botic, I saw the match today at 5-4 for him in the third, because then I went to play. I did think he’s gonna finish it in three, and when I went out and they told me he just finished but he still won, wow, impressive.
“I know kind of how he plays. I know he can play good. I saw this today, especially he chose very good tactic against Diego. He was all over the place.
“Again, if I serve well, if I play well, I know that it’s not easy to play against me. He has some matches in his legs. I’m going to try to use it and try to win, yeah.”
