US open: Alcaraz suffers shock loss to Botic van de Zandschulp in Rd-2

NEW YORK: No. 3 seed Carlos Alcaraz suffered a shock loss at the hands of Dutch player Botic van de Zandschulp in Round 2 of the US Open late on Thursday night.

The 21-year-old Alcaraz's 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 loss to world No. 74 Dutchman was his worst showing in four consecutive-year Flushing appearances as it broke the Spaniard’s 15-match winning streak at Grand Slam events.

Alcaraz suffered his first loss in the second round of a major since 2021 at Wimbledon, where the then-World No. 75 fell to second seed Daniil Medvedev. The 15-time tour-level titlist committed 27 unforced errors, 12 of which came on his forehand, several missing by a great distance.

In the second game of the opening set, the players engaged in two prolonged rallies featuring several net rushes, dizzying lobs, and even a tweener. Van de Zandschulp capitalized on his first break point against Alcaraz's serve, consolidated the break, and swiftly took a 4-1 lead. Van de Zandschulp kept his cool and won the first set, 6-1.

Alacaraz held his serve to open the second set. The Dutchman responded in kind. But the Spaniard simply wasn’t able to hurt his opponent, with just three winners to 12 unforced errors at that point in the match and dropped serve yet again.

At the contest’s 30-minute mark, Alcaraz was finally able to break it to level the second set at 2-2. After a few seesaw games, he stepped up to serve at 5-5. He proceeded to donate three forehand errors and, to lose the game, a double fault. When the Dutchman served next, he took the second set 7-5.

After being two sets down, Alcaraz dropped serve to go down 3-2 in the third set. But then van de Zandschulp failed to consolidate the break, hitting a double fault (his seventh in the match) to lose the game.

To level the set to 4-4, the Dutchman hit an ace and was putting pressure on the Alcaraz serve yet again. As the match turned two hours and 15 minutes old, the Dutchman had set himself up to serve it out. In a minute’s time, he was serving at 40-0. That serve was unreturned and Van de Zandschulp won the set, 6-4, and the match.

By defeating World No. 3, Van de Zandschulp earned the highest-ranked win of his career.

Alcaraz, who took the title here as a teenager in 2022, has advanced to at least the quarterfinal stage each year since his 2021 debut. Last year, he reached the semifinals as the No. 1 seed at age 20, the youngest top seed in the tournament’s history.

The 28-year-old Dutchman has had strong prior results in New York, coming through the qualifiers to play in a quarterfinal match in 2021. He’ll take on England’s Jack Draper, the No. 25 seed, who looked dominant in his straight-sets win over Argentina’s Facundo Diaz Acosta, in the third round.