PUNE: Earlier this week, Botic van de Zandschulp was held up in traffic for nearly an hour and half while returning to his hotel after practice at the Balewadi stadium.
It might have brought back memories of a few years ago when he missed his flight — from Germany to Estonia where he was to play a Futures tournament — after a highway pile-up due to a car accident.
"Now I live 10-15 minutes from the airport, so it is a little bit easier," the 27-year-old Dutch, world ranked 35, said.
On Wednesday, he seemed to be in danger of missing the bus — figuratively speaking — once again as twice he trailed against Italian 20-year-old and world No. 171 Flavio Cobolli.
But the Wageningen native recovered on both occasions without much fuss to win 7-5, 6-4 in an hour and 34 minutes to move into the quarterfinals of the Tata Open Maharashtra.
"It was tough for me to find my rhythm in the beginning, my first match here. So, I'm really getting used to the conditions a little bit," van de Zandschulp said. "He had already played three matches, so it was easier for him in the beginning. But when he was 5-2 up I really started to play my best tennis. "And I did the same in the second set also, when I was 4-1 behind."
Van de Zandschulp had a bye in the first round as the second seed in the ATP 250 event while Cobolli, the 2020 French Open boys' doubles champion who had a breakout year in 2022, had come through the qualifying and snuffed out the challenge of India No. 1 Mukund Sasikumar in the opening round. He might have missed a flight, but on the tennis court, de Zandschulp is a player with all the time in the world.
His languid strides between points contrasts to the panther-like speed with which he gets to a drop shot, or the swift backward movement to execute the smoothest of overhead smash. Cobolli, who had jumped from outside 900 in 2020 year-end to career-high 143 in 2022, troubled his rival on his backhand early on but there was no real chink in the Dutchman's armour. Van de Zandschulp, after all, had come close to taking a set off his idol Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon this year.
Bonzi knocks Ruusuvuori out
Top seed and World No. 17 Marin Cilic avoided the proverbial banana skin as he put down the challenge of Roberto Carbellas Baena of Spain 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in two hours and two minutes to move into the quarterfinals. Finnish third seed Emil Ruusuvuori, runner-up in Pune last year, wasn't so lucky as he went down 1-6, 6-7 (4) to French 26-year-old Benjamin Bonzi. Both Cilic and Ruusuvuori were playing their first match of the season, having received a bye in the first round.
