After double-faulting to fall behind two sets to none — a deficit he’s never overcome — in the second round of the US Open, Carlos Alcaraz slung his equipment bag over a shoulder and trudged toward the locker room.
Glancing in the direction of his coach, 2003 French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero, Alcaraz pointed his right index finger at his temple, then wagged that finger, as if to say, “I’m not thinking straight.”
He might have been excused for being confused by what was transpiring under the closed retractable roof at Arthur Ashe Stadium on a chilly evening, and one set later, Alcaraz’s 15-match grand slam unbeaten streak was over with a sloppy 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 loss to 74th-ranked Botic van de Zandschulp.
Dan Evans (in a picture shared on X), who played a 5 hour-35 minute marathon match in the first round, beat Argentina’s Mariano Navone in the second round on Thursday. He will next face Australian Alex de Minaur. X
“It was a fight against myself, in my mind. In tennis, you are playing against someone that wants the same as you — to win the match — and you have to be as... calm as you can, just to think better in the match and try to do good things,” Alcaraz, who smashed his racquet during a Cincinnati Open match just a few weeks ago, said. “Today (Thursday) I was playing against the opponent, and I was playing against myself, in my mind. A lot of emotions that I couldn’t control.”
The result eliminated the pre-tournament men’s favourite, following another exit on Ashe for a past US Open champion. Naomi Osaka was sent home by Karolina Muchova 6-3, 7-6. That one, though, was not nearly as out-of-nowhere as what happened to the 21-year-old Spaniard.
He won the French Open in June and Wimbledon in July to raise his career total to four major championships, including taking the title at Flushing Meadows in 2022. Then, in early August, Alcaraz won an Olympic silver medal, losing to Novak Djokovic.
Maybe, Alcaraz acknowledged, a tennis schedule he called “so tight” drained him too much.
“Probably, I came here with not as much energy as I thought that I was going to (have),” he said. “But I mean, I don’t want to put that as excuse.”
What’s clear is he never found his footing against Van de Zandschulp, a 28-year-old from the Netherlands. Way off, Alcaraz repeatedly missed the sort of shots he usually makes routinely.
He came in with a 16-2 record at the US Open, where he never lost before the quarter-finals in three previous appearances. This also was Alcaraz’s earliest defeat at any major since bowing out in the second round of Wimbledon in 2021 as a teenager; he’s never been beaten in the first round at a slam event.
In contrast, Van de Zandschulp only once has been to a grand slam quarter-final, at the 2021 US Open.
Otherwise, though, he is not someone most folks would have expected to pull off
such a monumental upset. Consider this: Van de Zandschulp was just 11-18 for the season at the start of this week and hadn’t won consecutive matches at a tour-level event in 2024 until now.
“Actually, I am a little bit at a loss for words,” the Dutchman, who won the point on 28 of his 35 trips to the net, said.
The opening set was unbelievably lopsided. With Van de Zandschulp’s powerful forehands and serves at up to 132mph finding their mark, Alcaraz never seemed to get comfortable.
The second set was a bit better, but not enough, and a double-fault gift-wrapped a service break that put Van de Zandschulp up 6-5. When Alcaraz pushed a forehand wide to end the next game, the Dutchman finished off a hold at love that gave him the initial two sets.
It didn’t take long for Alcaraz to fall behind by a break in the third, too, but he made a stand immediately — well, with some help, because Van de Zandschulp’s double-fault ceded a break that made it 3-all. Alcaraz then held at love and smiled as he strutted to the changeover.
That grin quickly was gone, because Alcaraz’s mistakes kept arriving.
“Of course I had some nerves, but I think if you want to beat one of these guys, you have to keep your calm and keep your head there,” said Van de Zandschulp, who will face No. 25 seed Jack Draper of Britain in the third round on Saturday. “Otherwise, they take advantage of it.”
