US OPEN

September 3, 2021

Botic Van De Zandschulp

Press Conference

B. Van De ZANDSCHULP/F. Bagnis

3-6, 6-0, 6-2, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Your thoughts on the match, what's been quite a good week for you.

BOTIC VAN DE ZANDSCHULP: Yeah, definitely. I have to say today he played pretty good first set, almost flawless. He didn't miss many shots. So, yeah, he played good in the first.

From the second on, I started to play more my game, making more balls. He started missing a little bit. From that point on I think I dominated the match and, yeah, won pretty smoothly in the third and fourth.

Q. Has it hit you that you're into the fourth round of a Grand Slam?

BOTIC VAN DE ZANDSCHULP: I have to say not yet. It feels pretty normal, but for me it's not normal of course. No, it didn't hit me yet.

I have to say for me this week, this year, qualifying for all the slams, and here making for the first time the third round and now the fourth, yeah, it's pretty amazing. I'm going up in the rankings, yeah. The life's good now.

Q. Knowing you still have four matches to play, you could go even further.

BOTIC VAN DE ZANDSCHULP: Yeah, I think I have every match a chance to win. Yeah, also the next round it's going to be tough against Schwartzman. Still I won against Ruud here, won against some good guys. Yeah, I'm confident we can have a good match.

Q. Diego said he wasn't familiar with your game. What is difficult about playing him?

BOTIC VAN DE ZANDSCHULP: Yeah, he defends very well. He's playing a lot of rallies. Doesn't give you a lot of free points. You really have to make every point, to play every point. He's mentally pretty tough I think. What I told you, he's playing every point, he's going for it.

Q. I heard there's a new national training center in The Netherlands. You've been playing there. Can you talk about the role of that new facility in your success.

BOTIC VAN DE ZANDSCHULP: Yeah, I've been practicing there a lot. I think now the center is there for two years, one and a half years, two years. Yeah, it has great indoor courts and also outdoor hard. I've been practicing there some days before I went here.

Facilities are great. We didn't have, like, a center like this in Holland, so it's the first time for us we have a center. Yeah, I think it helped me a lot. All the players are there playing with each other, making each other better. Yeah, it's a good center.

Q. Did they teach you how to play best-of-five?

BOTIC VAN DE ZANDSCHULP: Yeah, let's say I feel physically good. I think I can play best-of-five. Yeah, I can handle it physically. Yeah, I think I said it before to you, when I'm two sets down, I don't have the feeling -- like when I win the third, I have the feeling like I'm leading a little bit or have the advantage, yeah, maybe the momentum.

Yeah, I like best-of-five.

Q. Have you dreamt about the possibility of so fast reaching the fourth round of the US Open?

BOTIC VAN DE ZANDSCHULP: Yeah, I think for me first time for me this year is I qualified in Australia. In Roland Garros I made the second round, had some chances to go further there. Yeah, at Wimbledon I made also second, but played Berrettini there so was a tough draw.

Yeah, didn't really dream about it but I had the feeling it was possible if I would have won the second round, yeah, like here. I had the second round a tough match, then won it. Yeah, you can go further in the tournament.