Bottic van de Zandscholpe begins the US Open without high expectations, a tournament where he reached the quarter-finals two years ago. The world No. 65 has not won a match since the previous Wimbledon tournament. He only played one match due to an ankle injury.
“Last week’s Winston-Salem tournament came very early,” said Van de Zandscholpe. “But I just wanted to be in the States really, otherwise I might have had a match like the one I played over here.” And he lost last week in Winston-Salem to world number 385 American Omni Kumar. “If the US Open wasn’t coming up, I wouldn’t have played last week. But it’s good that I actually played my first match last week.”
Van de Zandsholb (27) injured his left ankle shortly after Wimbledon. He fell wrong during a physical training with hurdles “in an exercise I’ve done thousands of times”. The result was a swollen ankle and an ankle ligament that almost ruptured. As a result, he missed a number of clay tournaments and the two Masters tournaments in Cincinnati and Toronto.
“I had been home for two weeks before my injury and suddenly four were added. For three weeks I was in a soft, flexible splint. The advice was to keep my legs as high as possible, so I was home more often.” said Van de Zandsholb, who left for the US A week and a half ago without spending too many hours training on the track: “At a certain point I was a little done with it.”
“Here in America we’re starting seriously again. In fact, it’s getting better every day, but I’m trying to build it up slowly. Otherwise, you run the risk of falling from one injury to the next. In the last week I managed ‘I have to work more physically and also be able to spend Some extra hours of training, also in terms of endurance. I have to say that in the training sessions it goes well, but the matches are always different. But I have to be realistic and realize that “it will take some time before I can give my best. I will need another two or three weeks for that.”
Australian Jordan Thompson faces his opponent on Tuesday. “He’s a hard worker and he has a lot in return,” says the Dutchman. “He’s having a great season and feeling good. It’s going to be a tough job.”
Last year, Van de Zandscholpe reached the second round in New York. Then he lost to France’s Corentin Moutet.
