Thijs Boogaard won the first ATP-level match of his career on Wednesday in Rosmalen, beating Wu Yibing 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 after a match that had been stopped the day before because of bad weather. The 17-year-old Dutch wildcard, ranked No. 779 in the world, recovered from a 2-5 deficit in the second set and then finished the job in front of a home crowd.
That is the kind of result that changes the way a young player is viewed. Boogaard was playing only his second ATP Tour match ever, and Wu was No. 101 in the rankings, a clear step up from the Futures circuit where the Dutch teenager has mostly been competing. Earlier this year, Boogaard made his ATP debut in Rotterdam and lost in two sets to Stan Wawrinka after entering as a lucky loser, so this was the first time he turned a brief appearance on tour into a win.
The finish was tight and the break came at the right moment. Boogaard took Wu’s serve at 4-4 in the third set, then converted his first match point with a strong serve to seal the victory. The match resumed on Wednesday after rain halted play in Rosmalen on Tuesday, and the interruption seemed to reset the contest just enough for Boogaard to find another level when it mattered most.
The victory also sends him straight into one of the hardest possible follow-ups. Boogaard will face Daniil Medvedev in the second round on Thursday, a player he has trained with regularly in recent years and who shares the same manager. For Boogaard, who is regarded with Mees Röttgering as one of the two biggest tennis talents in the Netherlands, the challenge now is no longer whether he belongs on the ATP stage. It is how long he can stay on it.
Rosmalen itself has been shaped by the weather all week, with delayed matches and broken schedules across the tournament. That made Boogaard’s win feel even more immediate: a young Dutch player, on a wildcard, on a rain-hit day, beating a top-100 opponent and turning a first ATP outing into a result that will follow him into Thursday night against Medvedev.
