Botic van de Zandschulp faced Carlos Alcaraz for the first time in the opening round of the Australian Open, with the latter winning in straight sets. The Dutchman will once again take on the Spaniard in the second round of the US Open on Thursday.
Botic recalled that the energy Alcaraz brought to the court was insane and the way he was hitting the ball was incredible despite being so young. Alcaraz is known for his athleticism on the court and gives his 120% in all the tournaments.
The 21-year-old is already a four-time Grand Slam champion and he has been ticking the right boxes in his young career.
“What I was most impressed about was how he started. He was fully pumped, aggressive in a good way. That took me a little bit off actually, I had never played him,” van de Zandschulp told ATPTour.com. “Of course I’d seen him play and you hear all the talk about him. But that’s what I was most impressed about: the ferocity he was playing with, how he was hitting, the power he had. That was insane.”
Botic said it is not a good feeling to face the top players in the opening rounds of the major tournaments.
“It’s always nice to compare yourself to players like Alcaraz, Djokovic, Sinner. I played Sinner for example twice this year. First time, it’s nice. Second time in the first round, you think, ‘Man, maybe a little better later in the tournament?’” van de Zandschulp said. “But it’s always interesting to play these guys because I think after the match, you always know where you have to get better — which kind of situations, what kind of shots. I think you can learn a lot from those matches.”
The Dutchman has been struggling with his foot injuries in the recent past, which hasn’t allowed him to play continuously.
“Last year, I had way more serious injuries than this year. In April [of last year], I got a bone bruise on the left foot. Then I twisted my ankle. The bone bruise took a while, [it was] tough to get in my shoe with the bone bruise,” van de Zandschulp said. “Then afterwards, I [had] finally recovered, I twisted my ankle and tore my ligament. Same foot.”
The pain was difficult to deal with. Van de Zandschulp said: “I tried everything, like not tying all the shoelaces, maybe leaving something in between. It’s constant pressure. If you tie the shoe tight, it’s constant pressure on top of the foot. You feel it for a while.
“They probably thought I hit a nerve, like there was a nerve damaged as well, and a nerve takes ages to recover. It’s constant pain, constant something there. Of course some guys are better at playing in these kinds of pains I think. But for me, it was really the first time I really had something, so for me it was pretty difficult.”
