{"id":369494,"date":"2024-02-21T04:19:37","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T05:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=369494"},"modified":"2024-02-21T07:03:24","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T07:03:24","slug":"stars-unbelievable-meltdown-stuns-onlookers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=369494","title":{"rendered":"Star's 'unbelievable' meltdown stuns onlookers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dutch tennis player Botic van de Zandschulp staged an epic collapse during his straight-sets loss to French star Gael Monfils<\/a> during their round of 32 clash at the Qatar Open<\/a> on Wednesday morning AEDT.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old van de Zandschulp was ranked as high as world No.22 in October 2022 before falling \ufeffto the 70th rank.<\/p>\n

After dropping the first set to Monfils 6-1 in just 26 minutes, van de Zandschulp was poised to grab the second set and equal the match before capitulating in specular scenes.<\/p>\n

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\"Botic<\/p>\n

Van de Zandschulp brought up set point while serving up a break at 5-3. However, he failed to consolidate and was broken by Monfils.<\/p>\n

The Dutchman then achieved another two set points \ufeffin the next game \u2014 one at 30-40 and another at 40-Ad \u2014 but both were saved by Monfils.<\/p>\n

With\ufeff Monfils then serving at 5-6, van de Zandschulp raced out to a 0-40 lead in the game and banked another three set points, but in playing survival tennis, Monfils saved all three.<\/p>\n

Becoming frustrated with \ufeffMonfils' spirited tennis, the one-time ATP Challenger singles champion destroyed his racquet, receiving a code violation from chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani as punishment.<\/p>\n

\"Botic<\/p>\n

Monfils soon levelled at 6-6 in the set, forcing a tiebreak.<\/p>\n

The \ufeffformer world No.6 jumped out of the blocks, hitting a 6-3 lead with three match points in hand. But in another twist to the match, van de Zandschulp saved all three before bringing up a seventh set point of his own.<\/p>\n

He could not hold it \ufeffbut soon had another set point at 8-7 \u2014 which he again threw away with an unforced forehand error.<\/p>\n

Van de Zandschulp tallied his ninth set point when he aced his next serve to lead 9-8.<\/p>\n

In remarkable scenes \u2014 \ufeffdespite winning that point \u2014 van de Zandschulp was so seemingly hung up on his previous mishit that he launched a ball into the stands in Doha.<\/p>\n

This saw him receive another code violation from umpire Lahyani\ufeff.<\/p>\n

But as he had already \ufeffreceived a warning for his earlier outburst, van de Zandschulp copped a point penalty. This wiped out his ninth set point as Monfils was awarded the point to level again at 9-9.<\/p>\n

"This is unbelievable," one commentator said.<\/p>\n

"As if we haven't seen it all during this breaker."<\/p>\n

Another replied: "I can't believe that. I cannot believe that. [Van de Zandschulp had] won the point."<\/p>\n

Monfils then brought up match point before securing the 6-1, 7-6(9) win in 102 minutes.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/BenRothenberg\/status\/1760025960315797645?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

"To be honest, he played good. I lost a little bit of focus. Then I brought back the energy, you guys pushed me," Monfils told the crowd during his on-court interview.<\/p>\n

"It was a real battle. In the end, I was a bit fortunate. But you know, I'll take it."<\/p>\n

Speaking of the crazy tiebreak during his post-match press conference, Monfils admitted that he was "a bit fortunate" at the end.<\/p>\n

"[Van de Zandschulp] started to get angry, but the fact that I sensed he was nervous made me tense. In the end, I came out of it with a lot of luck and success," he said.<\/p>\n

Monfils will next play Zhang Zhizhen in the round of 16 on Thursday.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dutch tennis player Botic van de Zandschulp staged an epic collapse during his straight-sets loss to French star Gael Monfils during their round of 32 […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":369498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369494"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=369494"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":369502,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369494\/revisions\/369502"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/369498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=369494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=369494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=369494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}