Van de Zandschulp battles ‘tennis fatigue’ in ATP freshman year

“I’m going to do nothing for a while, I need it for a while. And then I’ll see when I get my racket back,” Van de Zandschulp said a week and a half ago after his loss to Frenchman Corentin. Moutet at the US Open. The world number 22, who will lose a lot of places in the rankings, knows this because of a busy schedule.

“It’s my first full year on the tour and there are a lot of big tournaments that you want to play. And maybe you’ll play more than you actually want to play. You’re going to play for the sake of playing and then you know in advance that you are not going to play the tournament well,” said Van de Zandschulp (26).

“I had that recently in America too, that I went to training just to train. It’s also your job and you have to come out fresh to work on things, not just go to the track “When I played in Europe earlier in my career, sometimes you could go home in between. Now it is much more difficult. I have to learn from it next year.

A year ago, Van de Zandschulp made his breakthrough by reaching the quarter-finals of the US Open as a qualifier. A year later, he returned as a top seed and someone to be seriously reckoned with.

“I was able to tick off all my goals very quickly. All year I won my matches everywhere. If I’m good physically and fresh in my mind – so don’t get tired of tennis – then I I can have a good level. At certain times of the season, I may have to play a few fewer tournaments.”

After a visit to Go Ahead Eagles – Feyenoord and some meetings with family and friends, Van de Zandschulp is looking forward to the final months of the season. “After a few days away from tennis, I really wanted to play tennis again. After the US Open, I feel like I can approach the end of this year a little more freely.”

Van de Zandschulp will lead Orange next week in Glasgow, but everyone is equal for him. “I’m not the type of person who will tell others how to do it,” said Van de Zandschulp, who will compete in Glasgow against Kazakhstan, Great Britain and the United States.

“It’s a very difficult group, but also a group in which a lot is possible. We are slightly more favorites against Kazakhstan, but they are against England and America. But we have a chance in every game that we’re playing against them. . It’s a good feeling that we can get into games like this.”