daviscup.com
April 2, 2024

Spain can�t fail to feel confident as their Davis Cup by BNP Paribas quarterfinal at home to the Netherlands approaches. In a match that will be played on clay in Mallorca, April 9-11, Spain boast a team filled with the reigning Roland Garros champion (Juan Carlos Ferrero, the 1998 Roland Garros winner (Carlos Moya), perhaps the most exciting prospect in the game and the last person to defeat Roger Federer (Rafael Nadal), and a solid, talented performer in Tommy Robredo.

Yet despite the formidable reputations and records of their opponents, the Netherlands, and Raemon Sluiter in particular, still have reason to feel confident.

The last time the two nations met, in Eindhoven in 2001, the Netherlands were triumphant, and Sluiter, on his debut, defeated Ferrero in the opening rubber.

It seemed as though Sluiter had been born to play on the Davis Cup stage.

�On my debut against Spain I played a great match,� he remembers. �The nice thing was that I also won that match against Ferrero, but even if I had lost, it was still a good match and I was able to play my best tennis. I think that is what it�s all about. The pressure is big, and different in Davis Cup, but somehow I liked that pressure. It brought out my best tennis.�

His team-mate Sjeng Schalken began describing Sluiter as a �Davis Cup specialist� after his countryman�s 67(5) 76(7) 36 76(3) 64 victory over Ferrero.

Bizarrely, it was also a Davis Cup match between the Netherlands and Spain, the previous one that the two nations had played, that caused Sluiter to fall in love with the competition.

�It�s quite a coincidence with the meeting coming up that the first thing I remember of the Davis Cup was when we beat Spain away in 1993,� he says.

�(Paul) Haarhuis won two singles rubbers, and with the score at 2-rubbers-all, [Mark] Koevermans came back to beat [Sergi] Bruguera from two sets to love down. That was the first time that I thought: �this is what it is all about, this is undoubtedly the most beautiful thing in tennis.� From that moment on I really started looking differently at the Davis Cup.�

When he eventually forced his way into the Davis Cup team himself in 2001, he still stood behind players like Haarhuis, and 1996 Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek, so opportunities appeared to be limited.

However, when he joined up with the team in Eindhoven for the tie against Spain, his big chance suddenly came out of the blue.

�The whole week I was practicing and hitting the ball really well,� remembers Sluiter. �Richard Krajicek was injured and if he had been fit I would have only been there as a fifth guy. I still wasn�t counting on playing, not at all, because we had a lot of good players and I think Jan Siemerink was ranked a little bit higher than me at the time, but in practice I think he got a little bit injured.

"The coach got the team together and told us that I was going to play. It was a big surprise, but adrenaline ran through my body and although it was quite nerve-wracking, it was a different pressure, and somehow I quite liked it.�

So much so that he saw off Ferrero in that thrilling encounter in front of an ecstatic home crowd.

For Sluiter - as patriotic a man as you could ever find - there could be no bigger achievement. Born in Rotterdam and a resident there ever since, Sluiter says he never wants to live anywhere else. He loves to see the Netherlands fans in their orange outfits supporting their national teams, and he is the same as them in regard to other sports - mentally kicking every ball with the national football team, for instance.

Sluiter also loves snooker, and is a decent player himself. His favourite player is the exciting �Rocket� Ronnie O�Sullivan, and the need to entertain the crowd is something Sluiter takes seriously. He likes to occasionally play an audacious drop-shot or two himself, and regardless of whether the Netherlands beat Spain in April, he wants the crowd to go home happy.

�Even though it�s an away match against Spain, I still think there will be a lot of people from the Netherlands there, wearing the orange," he says. �Of course they want us to win, but they are also there to just have a couple of great days. First of all we are tennis players, but we are also entertainers, so it is good to see them having a good time.�

And if history is anything to go by, they might come away celebrating a victory as well.