One day after eliminating Stefanos Tsitsipas from the ABN AMRO Open, home hero Botic van de Zandschulp was up for the big task of becoming the first Dutch player to make this year's semifinals in Rotterdam. His next opponent was top seed Alex de Minaur, who'd dealt with Arthur Fils and Stan Wawrinka in the opening rounds.
On Rotterdam's centre court, Van de Zandschulp played a strong first set and dealt the first break of the afternoon after making good on his third break point in De Minaur's first three service games. The Dutchman, who hit on 86% of his first service points, never made it easy for the Australian by hitting 8 winners, eventually winning the set 6-3.
The second set was more hard-fought, with De Minaur and Van de Zandschulp dominating the first five service games before opening an all-out brawl for the points as the two combined for five break points and 55 points in the six games preceding the potentially deciding tiebreak.
Some mistakes from Van de Zandschulp helped De Minaur back up to win the second set and force a third set in the final afternoon match of the Rotterdam tournament.
The Australian world no. 8 took control of the third set early after breaking Van de Zandschulp in the very first game, profiting from the Dutchman's poor second serve. However, Van de Zandschulp fought back and scored a fabulous winner to earn three break points, of which he only needed one to level the set again.
De Minaur then regained control with a stroke of luck after breaking Van de Zandschulp with a net ball. In the following game, the Australian was given two match points and made good on his second to eliminate Van de Zandschulp and prevent the Dutchman from reaching his first-ever semifinal in Rotterdam.
In the semifinals, De Minaur will face Ugo Humbert after the Frenchman's straight-sets win over De Minaur's compatriot Christopher O'Connell.
Check out all the match statistics on Flashscore
