After having stuck with the master of the place at Roland-Garros, Botic van de Zandschulp hoped to hurt Rafael Nadal a little more at Wimbledon. But the 26-year-old Dutchman did not really hold up better on the London turf than on the Parisian ocher and lost, like a month earlier, in three sets on Monday (6-4, 6-2, 7 -6 [6] in 2h21). The Spaniard, who is playing in London for the first time since 2019, will face American Taylor Fritz in the quarter-finals.
Very close to concluding in less than 2 hours, the Spaniard made the task a little complicated on his own when he served for the match (5-3 in the third). A double fault, a backhand too long and a forehand in the net caused the annoyance of the Mallorcan. Led 0-40, he dismissed the first break point but committed a new fault on the second by sending a backhand slice out of bounds.
Nadal is gaining momentum
A longer than expected end of the match and quite unexpected given the configuration of the match. A first set to take the measure of the opponent and concludes with a break at the best time. A second round flown over with clinical tennis (5 unforced errors only in this round against 14 for his opponent). And if the Mallorcan misplaced his serve at the start of the third, he immediately made up his delay to remind who was the boss on the court.
His score confirmed his rise in power seen in the previous round against Lorenzo Sonego after two more contested first rounds (he had given up a set each time). The last minutes of his match on Monday will not remove this feeling since Nadal still managed to conclude in three sets, not without difficulty since he needed four match points and a big failure in smash on the last of his opponent to make the decision in the deciding game.