Carlos Alcaraz Is Knocked Out of the US Open in Shock Defeat
US Open
August 30, 2024
Carlos Alcaraz will probably admit that he should have known better. The sparkling Spaniard has two Wimbledon triumphs to his name – and the most recent French Open too.
Brilliant Alcaraz even won a US Open here two years ago. In theory, he should have understood all the pitfalls of the first week at a Grand slam and how to negotiate them.
Carlos Alcaraz won’t make this mistake again at Wimbledon 2025. He will surely learn from this slightly embarrassing experience.
But at Flushing Meadows he underestimated an opponent – and that fundamental sporting error cost him dearly.
Botic van de Zandschulp isn’t easy to say. He isn’t easy to play either, it emerges. The unpredictable Dutchman may not be one of the game’s superstars. But he is a top 100 professional – and he isn’t entirely unknown to tennis fans.
The underdog has some talent. And his abilities clearly should have been respected more completely on this occasion.
Young Carlos Alcaraz must have thought his own immense talent would prove too much for a supposedly mediocre adversary – even on a day when mental fatigue had quietly crept into the mix.
At least he was alarmingly honest about how shockingly short he fell psychologically in New York. And this is a useful reminder that our seemingly superhuman gladiators are all fragile deep down. They can all be vulnerable.
Alcaraz confessed: ‘He didn’t make a lot of mistakes that I thought he was going to do. So I was confused 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 match. It wasn’t enough to win. It wasn’t even enough to give myself a chance of getting into the match or make chances.
‘Today I was playing against an opponent. And I was playing against myself in my mind. A lot of emotions I couldn’t control.’
Van de Zandsculp took full advantage. He ripped into the favourite to win 6-1, 7-5, 6-4. The likes of Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner won’t mind. They’ll be surprised, though.
Carlos Alcaraz had won two out of three majors so far this year. He will be going for a hat-trick of Wimbledon wins when he takes to the manicured lawns at Wimbledon 2025 next summer.
But perhaps by early next year Alcaraz will see this reverse as a blessing in disguise. He can now recharge the batteries to some extent ahead of the one Grand Slam that has so far eluded him.
The Australian Open at the start of 2025 gives Carlos Alcaraz the chance to secure a Career Slam and he will enter that tournament all the hungrier for what has just happened.