Zizou Bergs: Putting On Quite A Good Show At The European Open

Zizou Bergs
Zizou Bergs (photo: European Open/Belga)

ANTWERP/WASHINGTON, October 17, 2024 (by Michael Dickens)

On the tennis court, Zizou Bergs can be best described as part fighter and part entertainer — definitely an athletic, crowd-pleasing showman — who loves to play to his audience. The name “Zizou” comes from the nickname of French football legend Zinedine Zidane.

At this week’s European Open, an ATP 250 indoor hard-court event taking place this week in Antwerp, a port city on Belgium’s River Scheldt, the 25-year-old Bergs — who is fluent in Dutch, French and English — has put on quite a show at his favorite tournament that has been filling the Centre Court seats at Lotto Arena with plenty of flag-waving Belgian tennis fans, who appreciate what the Lommel native and current Antwerp resident has done to elevate the sport in the Flemish Region of Belgium and countrywide, too.

Tuesday evening, in the featured match on Centre Court, the 69th-ranked Bergs celebrated Belgian Day at the European Open with a crowd-pleasing 7-5, 6-4 victory over Argentine lefty Facundo Diaz Acosta. By the end of their one-hour, 45-minute skirmish, the Belgian No. 2 saved his best for match point: a backhand overhead volley for a winner — his 22nd winner of the match — that was a real showstopper and enabled him to celebrate his 13th triumph of 2024 and second career main-draw win at the European Open.

The victory kept Bergs undefeated against Argentines across all levels going into his Thursday evening nightcap against No. 4 seed Sebastian Baez, ranked 27th, who is the top-ranked player from Argentina.

After his victory over Diaz Acosta, Bergs was quoted in Belgian media (translated into English) saying: “I was pleasantly surprised by the large turnout. That’s great for us. It shows that tennis is alive in Belgium.”

Four years ago, at age 21 and ranked No. 528, Bergs, wasn’t originally supposed to be in the main draw of the European Open. Then, he was given a late wild card by tournament director Dick Norman as a replacement for his 221st-ranked countryman Ruben Bemelmans — now, ironically, his coach — who had recently tested positive for Covid-19 and was withdrawn from the tournament.

Bergs lived and played in the moment – pumping himself up along the way – and guess what? He won his first ATP main draw match with an emotion-filled 7-5, 7-5 victory against then-No. 45 Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain, who had 459 more tour-level matches of experience. After securing match point, Bergs exchanged some high-fives and let out a huge roar of approval that followed his one hour and 42-minute Center Court victory.

“I’m definitely a guy who enjoys emotions. I have amazing friends, amazing family and I’m playing at home in Belgium, in Antwerp,” Bergs said shortly after his victory during a hastily organized, virtual videoconference that was conducted in both English and French languages.

“I just love emotions. I love screaming it out and seeing the [fans’] reactions. “It’s just really why I want to play tennis, because I like the atmosphere. Those are things that I live for. It’s the way I want to play , it’s the way I want to enjoy the games. It’s my nature. …

“What did I learn?” Tennis TourTalk asked Bergs. “I learned when I was up in games to definitely finish it easy, simple and not to do some crazy stuff.”

Fast forward to now, Bergs is quickly becoming the face of Belgian men’s tennis as he climbs the ATP Rankings, with only the 53rd-ranked David Goffin — who turns 34 in December — ahead of him among other Belgian men. He’s still learning to harness his energy and to curb being too crazy on the court.

To his credit and thanks to his determination, Bergs is enjoying a career-high ranking after earning the biggest win of his career over No. 24 Alejandro Tabilo of Chile en route to a third-round finish at Roland-Garros as a qualifier. In his last tournament, he earned his first ATP Masters 1000 victory in his Rolex Shanghai Masters debut. Bergs defeated popular Chinese No. 1 Zhang Zhizhen, 6-4, 6-3.

Against Baez, Bergs aimed to be the third Belgian to make the European Open quarterfinals after Goffin (2016-17, 2022) and Bemelmans (2017), and on a personal level to reach an ATP Tour quarterfinal for just the second time after reaching the last eight plateau at Gstaad on clay last year. And he did it, winning 6-3, 6-4 in an hour and 33 minutes for his 14th triumph of the season.

Bergs rode to his second victory of the tournament on sheer adrenaline and with the Centre Court crowd cheering on his every winning point. He outpointed Baez 73-62 by hitting 26 winners that helped overcome 43 unforced errors. He pressured Baez into 10 break-point situations and converted five of them.

“I certainly don’t see myself as an underdog,” Bergs said in his post-match news conference Tuesday, translated into English, looking ahead to the Baez match. “This is a nice opportunity for a second win.”

Now, the bottom line is simple: Win or lose, Bergs wants to make himself into a better tennis player.

“I’m not the favorite to win the tournament here, but it’s clear that the other players would rather not see me on the other side of the net,” he said. “They look at me differently. I feel that from the respect I get in the locker room.”

Tsitsipas digs in, battles past Seyboth Wild

World  No. 11 and second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece moved a step closer to matching his semifinal finish of last year. However, he really had to dig in to win his second-match against 80th-ranked qualifier Thiago Seyboth Wild of Brazil.

With the margins close throughout the two-hour, 20-minute featured match on Centre Court Thursday evening, Tsitsipas finally gained a match point against Seyboth Wild, ahead 6-5, Ad-40 on his opponent’s serve. The Brazilian, who struggled with his serve at times, promptly served up a double fault — and handed Tsitsipas the victory — his 40th of the season. It was the only time Tsitsipas broke Seyboth Wild but it gave the 26-year-old Greek Star his sixth 40-win season.

“It was exhausting out here having to stay in the match,” Tsitsipas (40-19) said during his on-court interview. “The comeback was crazy. When he was up in the score, I managed to stay in the points and defend well.

“It was all psychological at the end, I managed my nerves pretty well. I don’t usually like to build my game around defensive shots, but I had to fight, I had to do anything within my artillery to make it work.” 

Next, Tsitsipas will face 33rd-ranked Jiri Lehecka. The 22-year-old Czech dropped only three points on his first serve and saved all three break points he faced against No. 84 Daniel Altmaier of Germany. It added up to a solid 6-4, 6-3 victory that advanced the fifth-seeded Lehecka into the 14th tour-level quarterfinal of his career — his third indoors — and improved his 2024 win-loss record to 26-15.

After winning the opening set, in which he broke to go ahead 3-2, Lehecka broke Altmaier in the third and ninth games of the second set to put away the victory. He hit 18 winners and outpointed his opponent 58-53.

“Daniel was able to produce some very good service games,” Lehecka said in his on court-interview. “For me, it was difficult to find the rhythm on my returns [in the first set], and I focused on the one moment I would have a chance to take a game to finish the set. It was a very tough match, very tough mentally. Nothing was easy but I’m happy to be through [to the quarterfinals].”

Also, No. 47 Marcos Giron of the United States, the only American in the singles draw, advanced to the quarterfinal round with a 7-6 (8), 7-6 (4) victory over No. 62 Arthur Rinderknech of France in one hour and 54 minutes on Centre Court. He will face the Bergs Friday night.

Thursday afternoon, Giron equaled a personal-best 24th win in a season with his triumph, in which he fired 12 aces, won 88 percent of his first-serve points, saved the only break point he faced, hit 31 winners and outpointed Rinderknech 88-80. It was his second career win over the Frenchman in three meetings.

Around the European Open

No. 3 seeds Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen of Belgium were upset by unseeded Austrian pair Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler, in an hour and 25 minutes on Centre Court. Erler and Miedler won 81 percent of their service points, did not face any break points and converted one of two break-point chances, which came in the fourth game of the second set. They outpointed Gille and Vliegen 60-57.

In Friday’s semifinal round, Erler and Miedler will face unseeded Sander Arends of the Netherlands and Luke Johnson of Great Britain, who rallied to upset No. 2 seeds Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France, 2-6, 6-3, 10-8.

No. 4 seeds Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Adam Pavlasek of the Czech Republic were defeated by unseeded Robert Galloway of the United States and Aleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan, 3-6, 6-3, 10-5. They will oppose unseeded Robin Haase and David Pel of the Netherlands, who came from behind to defeat Matwe Middelkoop of the Netherlands and Andres Molteni of Argentina, 3-6, 6-3, 10-8, in the semifinals on Saturday.

Thursday’s European Open results

Friday’s European Open order of play

By the numbers

Marcos Giron has equaled his personal best 24 wins in a season (first set in 2023) and reached six quarterfinals in a season for the first time in career (after reached five three times: 2022, 2023, 2024).

“Quotable …”

“We always have a hard time against this Austrian duo, they serve very well. Too bad we couldn’t use those four set points in the first set. That hurt, and then the momentum turned around. They gained confidence and that was the deciding place.”

— Doubles No. 3 seeds Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen of Belgium, during their post-match news conference (translated from Dutch), after losing to Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler of Austria in Thursday’s quarterfinal round.

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