By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The biggest upset in the ongoing US Open Grand Slam tournament just happened.
In just the second round of the most prestigious tennis competition in Queens, New York, world no. 3 ranked Carlos Alcaraz suffered a huge stunner after losing to world no. 74 Botic van de Zandschulp- 6.1, 7.5, 6.4- on August 30, 2024.
Favorite to win the matchup and the entire tournament, Alcaraz took a huge blow after the Dutch superstar made the headlines, bagging the biggest win of his Grand Slam career so far.
Despite being the underdog in the second-round clash, Zandschulp kicked off the duel unfazed, stealing the momentum away from Alcaraz when he scored an early service break point.
To everyone’s surprise, Zandschulp’s consistency made things hard for Alcaraz as he always connected on his insane top-spin stroke that kissed the wide angle line of the Spaniard’s backhand side.
Zandschulp made that unorthodox move to generate points several times in the opening set which led to a momentum-boosting 1-0 lead against the world no. 3 male tennis player.
Alcaraz started to shake some jitters away in the second as he finally reduced his baseline errors but a late counter rally from Zandschulp made things interesting in the last three game possessions.
Just when Alcaraz started to pick up his groundstroke rhythm, Zandschulp had other plans in mind and played the risky strategy of targeting the no man’s land.
With this move, Zandschulp lured Alcaraz into the net area and was fearless in throwing the big forehands down the line.
Fortunately for Zandschulp, Alcaraz committed some costly errors with his finishing in the net and cruised to a comfortable 2-0 advantage.
It was then all Zandschulp in the third and final set as Alcaraz looked flat and was always pointing to his coaching staff at the sidelines every time he made an unforced error.
With the loss, Alcaraz’s 15-match winning streak on the Grand Slam stage has been snapped and suffered his earliest exit in the US Open since entering the top five rankings of the ATP.
