Sjeng Schalken

Born: September 8, 1976 in Weert (Limburg)
Height: 1.93 m
Plays: Right-handed

Putting emphasis on going far in the most important events, I suppose I’d classify him as the least accomplished player among the best born between 1959 and 1989, who participated in a minimum of 200 main-level events. Some might ask, “Why did you incorporate him and not Sam Querrey?” After all, their achievements are nearly identical. My response would be, “because it’s a subjective list of the best players.” Two factors influenced my choice of Schalken over Querrey: his impressive record in finals (9-3 vs. 10-10; one of nine titles captured in a ‘best of five’ final – Stockholm ’01) and his remarkably consistent performances in Grand Slams from Wimbledon 2002 to Wimbledon 2004 – worthy of a Top 10 player, though he never quite reached that rank.
Schalken began his tennis journey hitting against a wall, which might explain some of his stiffness. The wall is excellent for developing patience, flat hitting (Schalken’s backhand down the line his trademark shot), but it doesn’t encourage the movement that young players need. The Dutchman was indeed patient, favoring clay courts in his early years on the tour before slightly improving his serve to become more successful on hard courts. His serving approach prioritized accuracy over speed, and in the early 2000s, he consistently ranked among the best in first-serve percentage, maintaining an impressive average of around 68%. Despite his ability to challenge the best players of the 90s, Schalken struggled for a long time to achieve results that matched his potential at major tournaments. For 28 consecutive Slams, he never advanced beyond the third round. However, when he finally broke that barrier, he reached the quarterfinals, and over the next three years, the second week of majors became his natural habitat. Between July 2002 and 2004, he reached the last 16 as many as six times and won five of those fourth-round matches; he was three times (UO ’03, AO ’04, WB ’04) eliminated by Andy Roddick – the best player in the world at the time. On one occasion, he even secured a victory in the quarterfinals when he faced Fernando González, a novice at that level, outsmarting the hard-hitting Chilean in a thrilling encounter. In his lone major semifinal, the Dutchman had no chance to beat Pete Sampras – the only great player born in the 70s, whom Schalken never defeated. Quite surprisingly Schalken was unable to play a Masters 1K semifinal (the same applied to Querrey), five times losing in the quarterfinals at this level (Querrey lost four), being very close to go one round further in Paris ’01.
Luck finally favored Schalken after years of heartbreaks at the turn of 90s/00s, when he lost several nail-biting matches, particularly at Wimbledon. These defeats seemed to defy probability because he didn’t appear overly tense or physically spent; rather, a combination of volitional factors led to these losses. Year after year (except 2001), he fell in London to American and Australian players in epic five-set matches: 6-8 (Jan-Michael Gambill), 11-13 (Jim Courier), 18-20 (Mark Philippoussis), and 5-7 (Lleyton Hewitt) respectively in fifth sets. All this painful experience was eventually rewarded in the latter stages of his career, as he improved his record in five-setters from a dismal 6:14 to a respectable 12-14, including a dramatic victory over a five-set specialist Nicolás Lapentti at Wimbledon ’03.
From the perspective of Dutch tennis, Schalken was a bridge between two generations: the older, more successful players (Richard Krajicek, Jan Siemerink, Paul Haarhuis, and Jacco Eltingh) and the younger, less accomplished ones (Raemon Sluiter, Martin Verkerk, Peter Wessels, Dennis van Scheppingen and Johan van Lottum). In 2001, Schalken played a key role in the Netherlands’ only advancement to the Davis Cup semi-finals; in the first round, he defeated Carlos Moyá in straight sets, helping secure a 4-1 victory over Spain; in the quarterfinal, he won the doubles match alongside Haarhuis against Germany (4-1). Ultimately in the semifinal, he suffered one of his many heartbreaking five-set losses, this time to Nicolas Escudé, after nearly five hours of play (7-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-7, 6-8), despite being just points away from winning each of the three sets he lost.
Like Wayne Ferreira, Schalken enjoyed an injury-free career for nearly its entirety. But when injury finally struck, it marked the end of his career. Schalken had to withdraw from Roland Garros in 2004, ending a streak of 35 consecutive majors played; he couldn’t participate due to a diagnosis of mononucleosis. Despite this, he still managed to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals. However, on more demanding surfaces, he could no longer muster the power needed, retiring from four matches in one season after having only five retirements in the previous ten years of his career (counting all levels). Suddenly, at the age of 29, he decided to retire.
His final noteworthy achievement came in a Davis Cup tie against Switzerland in the first round of 2005. Schalken won the deciding match against a young Stanislas Wawrinka in dramatic fashion. The Swiss led 4:1 in the final set with two breaks and served for the match at 5:4, only to squander four or five match points – depending on the count, as one of the match points was replayed after a controversial call was overruled by the umpire, Enric Molina. Reflecting on the match, Schalken said: “All I see is that yellow thing. When I find some calm in my game, the tennis ball appears larger. If that peace isn’t there, it looks like a golf ball coming at you rapidly, leaving you constantly on the defensive.” Schalken achieved much less than Krajicek, but given the Netherlands in the Davis Cup, his contributions were more instrumental to the team over the years.

Career record: 292–267 [ 263 events ]
Career titles: 9
Highest ranking: No. 11
Best GS results:
Wimbledon (quarterfinal 2002-04)
US Open (semifinal 2002; quarterfinal 2003)