The crazy story of Van Rijthoven, the tennis player who had never won an ATP game and hit Medvedev

“I’m still trying to figure out everything that’s going on. As a tennis player I think about my next game, but like Tim, the non-tennis player, I am trying to process everything I have achieved“. Tim is Tim van Rijthoven and he has just spent an unforgettable week starring in those fairy tales that only happen in sports. He is Dutch from the city of Roosendaal, 25 years old and has just been crowned champion ‘s-Hertogenbosch, in the Netherlands, a traditional tournament that is played on grass and is part of the preparation tour for Wimbledon, the third Grand Slam of the season.

Van Rijthoven In the final he beat the Russian Daniil Medvedev, number two on the planet that this Monday will become, for the whims of mathematics, the new leader of the world rankings. It was a final 6-4 and 6-1 in an hour and five minutes of play for the 205th place on the planet – thanks to this continuous shot, it’s already 106th -. It was a beating that is a story in itselfbut it is not the only story that can be told of this right-handed playing the one-handed backhand with singular elegance.

Because it’s a milestone without the need to go into too much detail. However, it is precisely the details that make this story even more wonderful. Van Rijthoven, until seven days ago he had never won a match on the ATP circuit. ‘S-Hertogenbosch, in fact, was his second appearance in the elite of Juventus sport – the previous one had been in 2016, when he had played and lost a match in the main draw of the Wiston Salem ATP 250 that he had reached as a lucky loser-.

This Ajax fan and Roger Federer devotee he hadn’t even been a champion in a Challenger. A pro since 2015, his one and only ephemeral smile in the elite was when he beat Swede Mikael Ymer in the fifth game of an already closed Davis Cup series. The rest, pickaxe and shovel. A tennis worker who had built his ranking thanks to victories in the Futures, the tournaments that come below the Challengers. And what did she find, her breaking point or his unique wonder? in a tournament that is played 46 minutes from his hometown.

“This is all new to me, it will take some getting used to. What a dream week I would like to thank my business team as usual, for not making it bigger than before. I would like to thank all of you (the audience). Your support has been great this week. Dutch fans are known to be very friendly and loud with their compatriots. It was nice to hear him too ”, she thanked her smiling after raising the title without yet believing what he was experiencing.

What did he say about Medvedev? “I would like to show great respect for Daniil. He is a great player. I’ve seen him on TV on many occasions, and now playing him myself was already a dream. Playing against Medvedev was something incredible.It was an honor to share the court with him. He will surely win many more titles. I hope to see him many more times on the track in the future, ”he humbly released.

And what did Medvedev say after such a bucket of ice water? “Congratulations Tim. great week. First time in an ATP tournament and smash world number two in two sets in the final. I think it must be a good feeling ”, said the Russian with the nice coolness that characterizes him. Perhaps because he hadn’t been Van Rijthoven’s only victim this week. First the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime (9th in the world, in the semifinals), the French Hugo Gaston, the American Taylor Fritz (No. 14, in the round of 16) and the Australian Matthew Ebden had fallen in a row.

In other words, the surprising Dutchman not only won his first game and his first title, but also dropped to two top ten in the same tournament which he achieved thanks to an invitation from the organization. That wild card helped him become the lowest scoring champion this season and the seventh player to win his first tournament in 2022 behind Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis, Kazakh Alexander Bublik, Auger-Aliassime, Spain’s Pedro Martinez, Holger Rune from Denmark and Sebastián Báez from Argentina. Also, in this collection of milestones, Van Rijthoven is the first player ranked outside the top 200 to win a title since Juan Manuel Cerúndolo did it in Córdoba 2021 when he was 335th.

And now? To enjoy that success he dreamed of as a young man (he was 13th in the standings in 2015) You already know that nothing is impossible.