Botic Bamboozles Casper In Munich

Botic van de Zandschulp bamboozled second seed Casper Ruud on Friday to reach the semi-finals of the BMW Open by American Express.

After a tight opening set, the eighth-seeded Dutchman cruised past the seven-time ATP Tour titlist 7-5, 6-1 to reach the last four in Munich.

“Maybe the score is easier than it really was,” van de Zandschulp said in his on-court interview. “The first set [was] really tight, I think. A great battle in the first one. I had some opportunities to break him in the beginning. Didn’t take him. Gladly [at] 5-all I made the break and held the serve at 6-5.

“[The] second set was a little bit easier, but I think I played really well today.”

Ruud does well to control play from his backhand corner by running around and hitting heavy forehands, but he was unable to consistently make van de Zandschulp uncomfortable. The 26-year-old saved the only break point he faced and won 50 per cent of his first-serve return points to triumph after one hour and 34 minutes. 

The eighth seed, who also defeated Ruud at last year’s US Open en route to the quarter-finals, will next play Miomir Kecmanovic. The Serbian continued his strong start to the season with a 7-6(5), 6-2 win against fourth seed Nikoloz Basilashvili.

Less than a month ago, Kecmanovic defeated van de Zandschulp 7-6(3), 7-5 at the BNP Paribas Open on the hard courts of Indian Wells. That was their first ATP Head2Head clash.

“It was not clay, it was a pretty close score,” van de Zandschulp said. “Looking forward to the match. I think he’s had a great season so far and he’s a great player. It’s going to be a good match.”