Sem Verbeek Interview: Wimbledon Mixed Doubles champion discusses singles vs doubles, Royal Dutch Tennis Federation, and more (Exclusive)

Dutch Sem Verbeek and Czech Katerina Siniakova secured two sets in a best-of-three final against Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani to become the Wimbledon mixed-doubles champions this year.

The Centre Court rose in applause for Verbeek and Siniakova as they hugged their trophies, made their speeches and waved to their loved ones. They took home £135,000, shared evenly between them. Their names were etched in the honour rolls of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club for ages unending.

Any athlete would trade their entire career for a success this big. But was it the best crop Verbeek and Siniakova could reap from the green lawns?

To say the least, they could have celebrated with fewer empty seats. Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek walked away with £3,000,000 each as the men’s and women’s singles champions of the same edition. They basked in victory in front of packed crowds.

Does that make Sinner and Swiatek better than Verbeek and Siniakova at tennis? Can they come together to beat the champion pair? They may, but it’s hard to say definitively. Can Verbeek beat Sinner in a singles showdown? He may, but the certainty of that cannot be confirmed again.

However, Verbeek admits that making the jump to singles would be a greater challenge for him than it would be for Sinner to transform into a doubles specialist.

“I do think in general, people who are successful in singles are more complete tennis players than people who can only be successful in doubles,” Verbeek told Sportshadow in an exclusive interview. “The transition of going from singles to doubles is a little bit easier than trying to go from doubles to singles.”

But the Dutchman maintained that comparing athletes across different disciplines within the same sport fails to recognize the distinct challenges each one faces.

“But it just requires completely different skill sets,” he continued. “There's a lot of overlap, obviously. It's like chess and checkers are both played on a square board, but it's different strategies and tactics. In singles, it's a great play to try to go high, deep up the middle after a first serve to try to neutralise the point right away. But if you do that in doubles, there's a net player who slots it down every time.

“There's a big element of time pressure in doubles. Because a few bad minutes in doubles are more impactful in the match than in singles, just because you play more points, you have a little bit more time to work into a singles match.

“It's in the same way that being a good freestyle swimmer on the sprints doesn't make a good freestyle swimmer on the 5,000. So, I think we do better in not trying to compare who is a better tennis player but just acknowledge both disciplines as their own and champion all those who are successful in either field.”

Sem Verbeek urges Dutch tennis association to organize more local tournaments to groom Grand Slam champions in singles

Verbeek’s homeland has produced its share of outstanding talent over the years. Dutch players have enjoyed moments of brilliance on tennis’ biggest stages, but consistency has always eluded them.

The country last celebrated singles success at the Grand Slam level in 1996, when Richard Krajicek conquered Wimbledon. Players like Robin Haase and Tim van Rijthoven have made their country proud on occasions in the last ten years.

Haase won the ATP 250 Kitzbuhel twice in 2011 and 2012. He stayed inside the Top 100 in the ATP singles rankings throughout the entire 2010-2019 period, except for only three weeks in 2015. Van Rijthoven surprised the tennis world in 2022 by overcoming Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in the Libema Open final three years ago.

Yet none have come close to matching Krajicek’s level.

As per Verbeek, Team Netherlands has potential that needs to be tapped by increasing exposure at home. He sees the likes of Tallon Griekspoor, Botic van de Zandschulp and Jesper de Jong as capable contenders for big titles, but noted the Royal Dutch Lawn Tennis Association should consider organising more tournaments on home soil to catalyse the efforts.

“It’s tough to have a Grand Slam winner in singles,” the 31-year-old said. “What Robin did on the singles court for a very long time was quite incredible. He was in the Top 100 for over a decade, during a period when he didn't really have his countrymen in the same rankings. So, he needs to get the credit he deserves. Tim won the 250 fairly recently.

“But now you have talent in the Top 50-100. Tallon, Botic and Jesper, the ingredients are there for a strong national team. We've got guys in between 100 and 200, a few in Top 300. The only thing I would say we need to do as a nation is just increase the number of tournaments in the country. We have the 500 [ABN AMRO Open] and 250 [Libema Open]. We have a few Challengers, a few Futures."

Verbeek brought up the heroics of Valentin Vacherot and Arthur Rinderknech at the recent Shanghai Masters and argued that the lower-ranked players can match the big guns if given similar exposure and calendar.

Vacherot arrived in Shanghai as the World No. 204, having played 17 tournaments on the Challenger Tour in the season, but defeated the likes of Novak Djokovic, Holger Rune and Alexander Bublik in his championship run.

"It's easy to overlook how similar the levels are between certain rankings," the Dutchman added. "As we saw in Shanghai with Vacherot and Rinderknech. These guys play Challengers.

"Vacherot played Challengers the whole year. Rinderknech has played Challengers for a long time as well and made his way up. But give some of these guys outside of the Top 100 the same schedule as some of the Top 100 players at home and the rankings would look a lot different."

Verbeek uses the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation as an example

Further, Verbeek acknowledged the efforts of the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation and encouraged tennis associations of other countries to follow suit.

During this season, the Italian men benefited from 18 Challenger tournaments and 31 ITF events at home, in addition to a Masters 1000 competition and the ATP Finals, which is ongoing. Currently, there are nine Italians inside the ATP Top 100, with Jannik Sinner and Lorenzo Musetti operating in the Top 10.

"If you look at the Italian federation, they have so many tournaments, and we have seen the kind of results it has produced. That can be a lesson for a lot of federations."

"I don't want to fault our federation as such, but once you have several players competing at the highest level, you get results like my Wimbledon title. If you want to develop Grand Slam champions, I think it starts by increasing the number of opportunities at home."

With just one ATP Challenger tournament and six ITF events alongside the ABN AMRO Open and Libema Open for the time being, the Netherlands still has a long way to go as a tennis nation.

**This is an exclusive article. If you use quotes from the article, please link to Sportshadow.com.**