One of the top favorites for the 2024 US Open trophy is eliminated already in the 2nd round. Carlos Alcaraz suffered a shock, straight set defeat, to Botic van de Zandschulp on Thursday, in what is surely the upset of the tournament so far!
The no 3 seed, who won the title here in New York in 2022 as a teenager, made a bunch of errors (27 in total) and is out of the tournament following a sloppy 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 loss.
Van de Zandschulp in great form
But it wasn’t only the errors and inconsistency of Alcaraz who made this result possible. The 74-ranked Dutchman played some great tennis with heavy balls from the back and some great movement and defending. Each time it seemed Alcaraz was on his way back into the game, van de Zandschulp shot him down quickly.
Van de Zandschulp showed his skills already in the straight set win against Shapovalov in the first round and now has won back-to-back matches for the first time this season. He never went deep in major tournaments and he even had to play various Challenger tournaments to keep his career alive.
Last night he looked extremely solid and kept his cool throughout the match.
“I think I played, like, emotionally tonight, stable,” he commented in a post-match press conference. “Also, during my play I think I played unbelievably stable.”
It will be interesting to follow him in the coming rounds following one of the big upsets of the year at the Arthur Ashe Stadium on Thursday night.
Watch highlights from the game below:
World no 3, Carlos Alcaraz, hasn’t really looked himself since the Olympics final loss. However, we can’t say that was the main reason for the heavy loss today.
This was the Spaniard’s attempt to become the third men’s player in the Open Era to win the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open in the same season. But it all ended in shock, and his worst US Open showing, against a strong opponent in van de Zandschulp.
