Just a few months ago, Botic van de Zandschulp considered retiring from tennis following a first-round loss at Roland Garros.
It’s a good thing he didn’t.
In a rags-to-riches rise rarely seen outside of Hollywood scripts, Van de Zandschulp stunned reigning French Open and Wimbledon champ Carlos Alcaraz 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 during second-round action at the U.S. Open in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday night. The Dutchman broke serve an almost hard-to-believe six times in a mere three sets and won a whopping 28 of 35 net points to triumph in two hours and 19 minutes.
“I don’t know what to say right now,” Alcaraz commented during his press conference. “First of all, I think he played great; he played really good tennis. 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 [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 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, 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.”
And basically every time Van de Zandschulp showed signs of letting the four-time Grand Slam champion back into the match, he came up clutch to keep Alcaraz at bay.
“I’m a little bit lost for words,” the 28-year-old said. “It’s been an incredible evening, the first night session for me on Arthur Ashe. The crowd was amazing…. I got a lot of confidence from my last match (against Denis Shapovalov). I played really solid and from point one tonight. I believed I could have a chance and you see how it sometimes turns out.”
Belief and confidence had been lacking for BVDZ in 2024. He was 11-18 at the ATP level going into U.S. Open and in his last seven main-tour matches was 2-5 with no victories over anyone in the top 155 of the rankings. Van de Zandschulp played two Challengers in July and did not win either one.
Suddenly, though, a 6-1, 6-1, 7-5 Roland Garros loss to Fabio Fognini that almost drove him to quit the sport seems like something from a distant past.
Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.