Dutch men out of Wimbledon singles after second round defeats

Jesper de Jong and Botic van de Zandschulp are both out of Wimbledon after second round defeats on Wednesday, ending Dutch involvement in the singles.

De Jong, ranked 73 in the world, lost in straight sets to the Brazilian 24th seed Joao Fonseca, who knocked Novak Djokovic out of this year’s French Open on his way to the quarter-finals.

The 19-year-old raced through the first set and completed a 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 win with an ace on his first match point. De Jong recovered an early break in the second set but created little else against an opponent he had beaten on clay in Estoril last year.

The 26-year-old from Haarlem had reached the second round by coming from two sets to one down to beat Australian Rinky Hijikata in a five-set marathon that was suspended on Monday because of the fading light.

He said afterwards that he had wanted to come off the court earlier because he was struggling to see. “The officials don’t seem to care that you can get a nasty injury. That seems to be the rules, but I don’t agree with them,” he said.

Marathon defeat
Van de Zandschulp, now the highest-ranked Dutch player at 54 in the world, lost a near four-hour battle with Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin, going down 0-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 after a deciding-set tiebreak.

It is the fifth time in six years he has gone out of Wimbledon in the second round. Safiullin, ranked 132nd after a long knee injury, reached the quarter-finals in London three years ago and beat his compatriot Andrey Rublev in the opening round.

Tallon Griekspoor had already gone home, losing his opening match to Australian James Duckworth on Tuesday. No Dutch women qualified for the singles, after Suzan Lamens, Arantxa Rus and Anouk Koevermans were all knocked out in qualifying.

Doubles hopes
Dutch interest now switches to the doubles, where Demi Schuurs, partnering Australian Ellen Perez, arrived in London in confident mood after a strong season. Griekspoor and Van de Zandschulp are also in the men’s doubles draw, where they face compatriots Sander Arends and David Pel, the 15th seeds, in an all-Dutch first round tie.