Alcaraz: I Was Fighting Myself

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.

It is Alcaraz’s first Grand Slam defeat since he lost to Alexander Zverev in the Australian Open quarterfinals last January—and his first loss in a major second round since bowing to Daniil Medvedev in the 2021 Wimbledon second round.

“He played really good tennis,” Alcaraz said. “I thought he was going to give me more points. I’m going to say more free points, you know. He didn’t make a lot of mistakes that I thought he was going to do.

“So I was, you know, confusing a little bit. I didn’t know how to manage that, how to deal with it. I couldn’t increase my level. I think my level stayed at the same point all the match, and it wasn’t enough to win the match or to give myself the chance to getting into the match or trying to give myself chances. So, you know, what can I say? I didn’t feel well hitting the ball. I think I made a lot of mistakes. When I wanted to come back or I think I wanted to come back, it was too late.”

Four-time major champion Alcaraz had reached 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 strike as van de Zandschulp lasered a forehand down the line that lanced both lines and left Alcaraz shaking his head in disbelief.

On this night, Alcaraz sometimes looked as stupefied as stunned fans in Arthur Ashe Stadium. When Alcaraz missed another forehand, van de Zandschulp broke for a 5-4 third set lead.

Serving for the match, the Dutchman drilled a pass down the line that rattled the Spaniard’s racquet for triple match point.

Van de Zandschulp not only beat the speedy Spaniard to the ball repeatedly, he closed with conviction scoring his greatest win in two hours, 19 minutes.

While resurgent van de Zandschulp moves on to a third-round showdown vs. 25th-seeded Jack Draper, a stunned Alcaraz hopes to learn from this match where he couldn’t find the adjustment answer.

“I’m thinking right now that I’m not changing, and that’s the problem if I’m going to sit here after the matches that I’m going to feel or I felt like that, that I couldn’t deal with it, I couldn’t change the match or I couldn’t push me up a little bit and say that,” Alcaraz said. “So I have to think about it. I have to learn about it, and another chance is going to be really tough if I want to improve. So I can’t say much about it.”