By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Thursday, August 29, 2024
Photo: Matthew Stockman/Getty
NEW YORK –A lung Carlos Alcaraz he swung his racket in vain at the ball that swirled from him.
The fastest man in the sport was playing catch-up from the start and never closed the gap with confidence Botic from Zandschulp.
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Under the closed roof of Arthur Ashe Stadium, the 28-year-old Dutchman delivered one of the biggest US Open upsets in years, showing world No. 3 Alcaraz the door 6-1, 7-5, 6-4.
Afterward, Alcaraz said the biggest playing field at the Grand Slam felt crowded: He felt the pressure of battling both his opponent and himself.
“It was a war against myself, you know, in my mind during the game,” Alcaraz said. “In tennis you are playing against someone who wants the same thing 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 .
“Today I was playing against the opponent and I was playing against myself, you know, in my mind. I mean, a lot of emotions I couldn’t control. It was kind of like I was high at some points. Then I lose some points; I go down. It was a roller coaster, shall we say, in my mind. So I can’t be like that if I want to think about big things, so I have to improve it. I have to learn about it.”
These two operated on opposite ends of the success spectrum for much of this season.
Alcaraz had won back-to-back Grand Slam titles at Roland Garros and Wimbledon and was trying to become the first man since Rafael Nadal in 2010 to win the final three Slams in a season.
In contrast, van de Zandschulp had not won back-to-back major tournament-level matches all season and was considering retirement at some point.
Tonight, 2021 US Open quarterfinalist van de Zandschulp flipped the script. van de Zandschulp out-boxed, out-boxed and out-boxed Alcaraz in ending the Spaniard’s 15-fight winning streak.
Van de Zandschulp created an excellent mix of attack and defense, winning 28 of 35 net points and converting six of nine break points.
Ultimately, the world number 74 attributed this stunner to self-belief.
“I’m a little lost for words. It’s been an incredible evening, the first night session for me at Arthur Ashe. The crowd was amazing,” van de Zandschulp told ESPN’s Mary Joe Fernandez afterward. “I took a lot of confidence from my last match (defeating Denis Shapovalov).
“I played very well and from the first point tonight, I believed I could have a chance and you see how it turns out sometimes.”
It’s Alcaraz’s first Grand Slam loss since losing to Alexander Zverev in the Australian Open quarterfinals last January—and his first major second-round loss since bowing out to Daniil Medvedev in the second round of Wimbledon 2021 .
“He played really good tennis,” Alcaraz said. “I thought it would give me more points. I’ll say more free points, you know. He didn’t make a lot of mistakes that I thought he would.
“So, you know, I was a little confused. I didn’t know how to manage it, how to cope with it. I can’t raise my level. I think my level stayed at the same point throughout the match and it wasn’t enough to win the match or give myself a chance to get into the match or give myself a chance. So, you know, what can I say? I didn’t feel good hitting the ball. I think I made a lot of mistakes. When I wanted to go back or I think I wanted to go back, it was too late.”
Four-time major champion Alcaraz had reached the semifinals or better in five of his last six Grand Slams, but none of that mattered much to van de Zandschulp.
The ninth game of the third set began with a brilliant shot as van de Zandschulp lasered a forehand down the line that hit both lines and left Alcaraz shaking his head in disbelief.
On this night, Alcaraz at times looked as stunned as the stunned fans at Arthur Ashe Stadium. When Alcaraz lost another advantage, van de Zandschulp broke for a 5-4 lead in the third set.
Serving for the match, the Dutchman drilled a pass down the line that rattled the Spaniard’s racket for triple match point.
Van de Zandschulp not only beat the speedy Spaniard on the ball repeatedly, he finished convincingly by scoring his biggest win in two hours and 19 minutes. Van de Zandschulp is the first Dutchman to beat a Top-3 ranked player at the US Open since Paul Haarhuis stunned Boris Becker in the third round of the US Open in 1991.
As van de Zandschulp’s resurgence moves into a third-round showdown against 25th-seeded Jack Draper, a stunned Alcaraz hopes to learn from this match where he couldn’t find the fix answer.
“I’m thinking now that I’m not changing and that’s the problem if I’m going to sit here after the games I’m going to feel, or I felt that way, that I couldn’t handle it. , I couldn’t change the game or push me a little bit and say that,” Alcaraz said. “So I have to think about it. I have to learn about it and another opportunity will be very difficult if I want to improve. So I can’t say much about that.”
