Carlos drops the second set to the Australian, then closes it out in the fourth: “Good, but I made too many errors.” In the second round against the Dutch Van de Zandschulp
It couldn’t be Li Tu who beat Carlos Alcaraz in his US Open debut, yet this Australian of Chinese descent gave the world number three some trouble. The Spaniard dropped a set (6-2 4-6 6-3 6-1) before finding his form and winning, but it’s clear that Carlitos is not yet at his peak. Of course, it’s just the first round in New York, and we must also give some credit to Tu, ranked 186 in the world, 26 years old, who returned to play in 2021 after retiring from tennis to start several academies in Australia.
comeback
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The world number three was coming off a bad loss in Cincinnati against Gael Monfils, which Alcaraz described as the worst match of his career, not so much for the result and the opponent, but for how it unfolded. “In the first set, where I played well and won easily, I made only two forced errors. In the second set, I committed eighteen – Alcaraz said in the press conference – really too many, a big difference. He started playing better, serving well, and not making the mistakes from the first set. I’m happy with my performance, except for all those errors at that moment in the match. I love playing here in New York; everything is so beautiful and crazy here. Playing in such a big stadium, on Arthur Ashe, gives me a lot of energy.”
disappointment
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After winning on the grass in London for the second consecutive year, Alcaraz had to endure the bitter disappointment of the Olympics, with a final loss to Novak Djokovic where he was favored, hard to digest. The Spaniard wants to win this US Open, as he did in 2022, but it was a different world, with different opponents. Two years ago, Nole was absent due to the well-known Covid complications, and Sinner wasn’t the world number one. Now the Serb is here and seems to have returned menacingly, and Jannik is also present, although not at his best after the investigation and acquittal in the doping case.
what a phenomenon
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Then there are the numbers, which rarely lie: Alcaraz has won his sixtieth slam match in his career out of 70 played, at just 21 years old. An incredible statistic, considering that throughout Open era history only John McEnroe won more major matches at his age. For the Spaniard, this is also his fifteenth consecutive win in slams, with only one loss in 2024, that against Sasha Zverev in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. If he were to win in New York as well, Alcaraz would be the third man in history to win three majors back-to-back in the same year, after Rafael Nadal and Rod Laver: not bad at all. In the next round, the world number three will face the Dutch Van de Zandschulp, in a match that might not be so straightforward.