Botic van de Zandschulp stunned many with his US Open performance against Carlos Alcaraz but that wasn’t all since he dropped a bombshell in his post-match presser as the Dutchman revealed that just a few months earlier he was thinking about walking away from pro tennis.
On Thursday evening in New York, the world No.74 completely outplayed the No. 3 seed 6-1 7-5 6-4 in two hours and 19 minutes of play to progress into round three.
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Right from the start of the match, it was clear that van de Zandschulp’s mindset was to go for his shots because he probably thought that he had nothing to lose. And although the 28-year-old dominated the four-time Grand Slam champion in the first set, the general belief and expectation was that Alcaraz would ultimately find his groove and overturn the situation.
But it didn’t happen and the former world No. 22 ended up handing out the 2022 US Open champion champion his earliest Slam exit since the Spaniard lost to Daniil Medvedev at 2021 Wimbledon.
“I’m a little bit lost for words. 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,” van de Zandschulp said.
Botic van de Zandschulp© YouTube screenshot
Van de Zandschulp reveals he contemplated retirement
Before the start of the US Open, van de Zandschulp had been just 11-18 on the ATP Tour this year and without a win on the main level since mid-July when he won a match at the ATP 250 tournament in Gstaad.
But in his opening match, the 74th-ranked Dutch stunned Denis Shapovalov 6-4 7-5 6-4. And then he also sent Alcaraz home, who was coming off back-to-back Grand Slam wins at the French Open and Wimbledon.
Now, the 28-year-old admits it all wouldn’t be possible if he decided to retire a few months earlier.
“Yeah, at the time I said it, I was thinking about it, of course. Yeah, it was just more the way things were going. I got injured last year. Still had some troubles with the injury from last year. That was for me like if I have to keep playing with the pain I had, yeah, then there was a chance maybe I would stop playing. Of course, I will give myself to the end of the year and see how everything was progressing. Yeah, of course, there was a serious thought,” the Dutch confessed.
Van de Zandschulp may have been honest after the biggest win of his career but he still didn’t fully process the victory itself.
“Actually right now not so many (emotions) (laughing). Yeah, maybe I’m still processing it. Maybe in a couple of hours or tomorrow I will feel a little bit more emotional with what happened tonight. Yeah, back when I said it, that maybe I’m thinking about retiring, at that point I was just being honest,” he added.
Botic van de Zandschulp© YouTube screenshot
Alcaraz’s confession after the van de Zandschulp loss
After losing his serve twice in the first set, Alcaraz also got broken early in the second set. The world No. 3 managed to get that break back but his woes continued and he found himself down by two sets after van de Zandschulp claimed another break in the 11th game before serving out for the set in the following game.
The third set was pretty much similar to the second set as the former world No. 22 blew an early break – but remained unfazed – and broke the Spaniard again before serving out for the match in the 10th game.
The third-seeded Spaniard, who wasn’t his usual self and had just 21 winners and committed 27 unforced errors, afterward revealed that he battled an inspired opponent but also his “own mind.”
“It was a fight against myself in my mind during the match. In tennis you are playing against someone that wants the same as you. To win. You have to be as calm as you can to think better in the match and try to do good things. Today I was playing against the opponent as well as myself in my mind. A lot of emotions I couldn’t control. I was up in some points. Then I’d lose some points and get down. It was a rollercoaster in my mind. It can’t be like that if I want to think about big things. I have to improve it. I have to learn about it,” Alcaraz said after the loss.
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Publish date : 2024-08-30 14:15:00
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