MALAGA, Spain (AP) – The Last Man face – and beat – Rafael Nadal in professional tennis, 80th Botic van de Zandschulpconverted his 10th match point on Friday to finally close out a 6-4, 6-7 (12), 6-3 victory over Daniel Altmaier and help the Netherlands reach their first Davis Cup final by sweeping Germany.
Tallon Griekspoor, ranked 40th, sealed the Dutch’s 2-0 victory in the best-of-three semifinal by hitting 25 aces and coming back to defeat Jan-Lennard Struff 6-7 (4), 7-5. , 6-4. When the match ended, fittingly, in an ace, Griekspoor closed his eyes, dropped to his knees and spread his arms wide.
“We’ve been talking about it for two or three years,” Griekspoor said. “We had so much confidence in ourselves. We always felt like it was possible. Doing it now seems incredible.
The other semi-final will take place on Saturday, with the n°1 Jannik sinner And Italy, reigning champion take charge Australia. The championship will be decided on Sunday.
“We don’t have that top 5 player. We’re not in the top 10. We don’t have that top 15 player,” Dutch captain Paul Harhuuis said. “But it’s a team effort. … I’m so proud of these guys .
In Friday’s opening match, van de Zandschulp was leading by a set and just one point away from leading 5-2 in the second when Altmaier started playing more aggressively and interacting more with the German fans, shouting and throwing uppercuts or raising his arms after key points. In the tiebreaker, Altmaier managed to save five match points before converting his fourth set point to prolong the contest.
But van de Zandschulp – who beat four-time Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz at the US Open – took an early lead in the final set, although he ultimately needed five more match points in the final match before serving.
“At one point I didn’t know what to do with match balls anymore,” van de Zandschulp said. “I had the hardest match of my life on Tuesday (against Nadal), so everything that comes next may be a little easier.”
In the quarterfinals, van de Zandschulp dominated Nadal for a 6-4, 6-4 result that marked the end of the 22 times Grand Slam champion career since the Netherlands then eliminated Spain 2-1.
Nadal, 38 years old announced last month that the Davis Cup would be his last event before retiring.
Presumably because people bought tickets in advance with the intention of seeing Nadal compete in the semifinals, there were hundreds of unoccupied blue or gray seats around the hard indoor court at the Palacio de Deportes Jose Maria on Friday Martina Carpena, in southern Spain.
Now truly neutral, the place wasn’t as loud and boisterous as Tuesday, although there were shouts of “Vamos, Rafa!” this caused laughter as van de Zandschulp played against 88th-ranked Altmaier.
It took Griekspoor more than 75 minutes and nearly two full sets to figure out how to break No. 43 Struff, and then he did it twice in a row – to lead 6-5 in the second set, then go up 1- 0 in the second set. third. It was more than enough, as Griekspoor saved the only two break points he faced.
The Netherlands had not reached the semi-finals since 2001. The Germans – whose current best player, two-time major finalist Alexander Zverev, is not part of the team in Malaga – have won three Davis Cups, but not since 1993, during Wimbledon in 1991. champion Michael Stich led them to the title.
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AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
