Dutch tennis player Botik van de Sandschulp shared his impressions of the St. Petersburg Open.
– I have not played in that many ATP tournaments, but I can say that St. Petersburg Open is very well organized. The hotel is incredible. I really liked the city, it reminded me a little of Amsterdam, thanks to the large amount of water and everything connected with it. I'm happy to play here, I hope to go even further.
– Did you know that the founder of St. Petersburg, Peter I, spent quite a lot of time in the Netherlands, studying shipbuilding and not only?
– Yes, my girlfriend told me about it a couple of days ago. He really built something that evokes associations with Amsterdam, thanks to all these canals.
– The day before, we recalled your match in Rotterdam with Andrei Rublev. Do you remember this meeting and how do you prepare yourself for the upcoming fight?
– Yes, I remember that match. He was somewhere around the 100th position in the rating, I got a wild card in qualification. Rublev kicked my ass in the first set – 6: 1, it seems – played very powerfully. After that I started to play better, if I'm not mistaken, I took the next two sets 6: 3, 6: 4. Now everything will be different. I grew up as a player, he grew up as a player. It seems that he is now ranked sixth in the rankings. Times have changed. When did you say we met, in 2017? A lot has happened in the past four years. An interesting match awaits us. We'll see which of us is stronger at the moment, said van de Sandschulp.
On the eve, Rublev also spoke about the upcoming match with the Dutchman, saying that he could not pronounce the opponent's name.
The meeting between Rublev and van de Sandschulp will take place on October 29 at 11:00 (Moscow time).
- “I can't pronounce his last name.” Rublev shared his opinion about the next opponent at St. Petersburg Open