By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Thursday, August 29, 2024
Photo credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty
NEW YORK—A lunging Carlos Alcaraz waved his racquet in vain at the ball blurring by him.
The fastest man in the sport was playing catch-up from the start and never closed the gap on a confident Botic van de Zandschulp.
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Beneath the closed Arthur Ashe Stadium roof, the 28-year-old Dutchman delivered one of the most massive US Open upsets in years, showing world No. 3 Alcaraz the door 6-1, 7-5, 6-4.
Afterward, Alcaraz said the game’s largest Grand Slam court felt crowded: He felt the squeeze fighting both his opponent and himself.
“It was a fight against myself, you know, in my mind during the match,” Alcaraz said. “In tennis you are playing against someone that wants the same as you, to win the match, and you have to be as much 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 that I couldn’t control. It was kind of I was up in some points. Then I lose some points; I get down. It was a roller coaster, let’s 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 sides of the success spectrum for much of this season.
Alcaraz had won successive Grand Slam titles at Roland Garros and Wimbledon and was bidding to become the first man since Rafael Nadal in 2010 to win the final three Slams of a season.
In contrast, van de Zandschulp had not won back-to-back main-draw Tour-level matches all season and was contemplating retirement at one point.
Tonight, the 2021 US Open quarterfinalist van de Zandschulp flipped the script. van de Zandschulp outslugged, out-hustled and outplayed Alcaraz in snapping the Spaniard’s 15-match major winning streak.
Van de Zandschulp created a brilliant blend of offense and defense winning 28 of 35 net points and converting six of nine break points.
Ultimately, the world No. 74 attributed this stunner to self belief.
“I’m a little bit lost for words. It’s been an incredible evening, the first night session for me on Arthur Ashe. The crowd was amazing,” van de Zandschulp told ESPN’s Mary Joe Fernandez afterward. “I got a lot of confidence from my last match [defeating…
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