The Netherlands reached the Davis Cup final for the first time as Tallon Griekspoor fought back to win his singles match and secure a 2-0 victory over Germany.
Botic van de Zandschulp, who beat Rafael Nadal in last match of the Spaniard’s career Tuesday, gave the Dutch team a 1-0 lead on Friday by defeating Daniel Altmaier in the first singles match.
The world number 80 needed 10 match points to wrap up a tense 6-4 6-7 (12-14) 6-3 victory.
Griekspoor stopped the best-of-three match from going to a deciding doubles as he came back from a set down to defeat Jan-Lennard Struff 6-7 (4-7) 7-5 6-4.
“We believed in ourselves so much that we always thought it was possible, so to do it now seems incredible,” Griekspoor said.
The Netherlands will face defending champions Italy – captained by world number one Jannik Sinner – or Australia in the final on Sunday.
“It’s more unique that we’re doing it because we don’t have that top 5 player, we don’t have that top 10 player, we don’t have that top 15 player – but it’s a team effort,” Netherlands captain Paul Haarhuis said.
“We have to believe in ourselves, no matter who is against us, that we can do it. This is our time this year. We are here and we are going to make it count.”
Three-time winners Germany were aiming to reach the final for the first time since their last title in 1993.
They were without world number two Alexander Zverev, who said last month he would miss the Davis Cup final in order to “recover and be back 100%” for the 2025 season.
Van de Zandschulp keeps his cool after the ‘toughest match of his life’
There was a feverish atmosphere as Van de Zandschulp faced 22-time Grand Slam winner Nadal, with some of his first-serve misses cheered by the partisan crowd.
No longer the bad guy, there was still tension for the Dutchman as Altmaier fought back from a breakdown in the second set and saved five match points in a 26-point tiebreak to force a deciding set.
But Van de Zandschulp delivered the decisive blow to break at 4-3 in the third and kept his composure to erase a series of double faults and serve the victory in the 10th requested time.
“I had the hardest match of my life on Tuesday, so everything that follows will maybe be a little easier,” Van de Zandschulp said.
In a closely contested second singles match, neither player faced a break point in the first set and it was Struff who turned up the intensity to win the resulting tie-break.
However, Griekspoor fought back and his serve proved crucial as he sealed the victory with his 25th ace.
This means Van de Zandschulp and Wesley Koolhof, who is expected to retire after the Davis Cup, were not called into action for the deciding doubles.
“It’s been an incredible journey over the last 15 or 20 years of tennis. I’ve done it with a lot of passion,” Koolhof said as his career was celebrated with a retirement ceremony after the Dutch victory .
“We’re not done, I’m not done. We still have a few days left and hopefully we can make something special happen here.”
