Botic van de Zandschulp is into the fourth round of the US Open after a five-set win over Zizou Bergs that lasted 4 hours and 29 minutes. He closed it out 3-6, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-3 and kept alive his run in New York.
The result matters now because Van de Zandschulp, who had already knocked out Alex de Minaur in the previous round, is the only Dutch player still active in the singles draw. By the end of the night, he had turned a match that looked close to slipping away into another step toward the quarterfinals he reached in New York in 2021.
What made the win harder than the scoreline first suggests was the second tiebreak, where Bergs was close at 6-6 before Van de Zandschulp found a way through. That kind of finish usually belongs to the player who breaks first under pressure, but he held firm, then took control in the fifth set when the match could have gone either way.
Now comes Arthur Gea, who also needed five sets to beat Michael Zheng and has already had a long path through the tournament after entering as a lucky loser when Casper Ruud withdrew. He arrived with momentum from winning the ATP-toernooi van Los Cabos in early August and then put together three straight wins at the US Open, so Van de Zandschulp does not get a simple follow-up for all the work he has already done. The Dutchman’s only remaining singles presence in New York makes the next round feel bigger than one more match; it is the one that will show whether this run is becoming something more than survival.
For now, Van de Zandschulp has done what mattered most on the day. He survived a long one, handled the pressure points better than Bergs, and stayed on course in a draw that has already thinned around him.
