Botic van de Zandschulp plays against a qualifier in the first round of Roland Garros. It is not yet clear which player that is. In its opening match in Paris, Talloniaanse will face a duel with Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Arantxa Rus will meet Elena Rybakina, the draw has revealed on Thursday.
The 26-year-old Van de Zandschulp knows who his opponent is on Friday. Then the final qualifying rounds for the clay tournament in Paris will be completed. Dutchman Tim van Rijthoven, among others, still has a chance to participate in this way.
Van de Zandschulp, who has been seeded 26th at the Grand Slam tournament in Paris, is in the same part of the schedule as Rafael Nadal. He can face the 21-time Grand Slam winner in the third round.
Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz are all placed in that half of the schedule. So it cannot come to a final between two of those tennis players. The Russian Daniil Medvedev is in the other half of the playing field, just like the Greek Stéfanos Tsitsipás, among others.
The 25-year-old Greek track meets the number 28 in the world with the Spaniard Davidovich Fokina. Greek track is the world number 64 and is 35 places lower than Van de Zandschulp, the best classified Dutch tennis player.
Based on their ranking, Van de Zandschulp and Greek track were automatically placed for the Grand Slam in Paris, which starts on Sunday. The men’s final is on June 5. Last year’s edition was won by Djokovic.
Arantxa Rus is the only Dutch participant.
Arantxa Rus is the only Dutch participant.
Photo: AP
Russian meets number sixteen in the world
With the Kazakh Rybakina, the 31-year-old Russian will meet the number sixteen in the world in her opening match. The South Holland player is in 76th place in the global ranking.
Rus played once before against the now 22-year-old Rybakina. In the qualifying tournament of the US Open in 2018, the Dutch settled after two sets with Rybakina: 6-2 and 6-2.
The best Dutch tennis player is the only Dutch player in the women’s singles. Suzan Lamens, Lesley Pattinama Kerkhove, Richèl Hogenkamp and Arianne Hartono had to qualify through the qualifying tournament, but failed to do so.
Thanks to her ranking, Rus was automatically placed for the tournament in Paris, where reaching the fourth round in 2012 is her best achievement. In the women’s final, the final will be played on June 4 and the Czech Barbora Krejcíková is the title holder.
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