A new face had a shining moment at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Thursday night.
And it came at Carlos Alcaraz’s expense.
Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands name is now stamped into history after defeating the world No. 3 player and favorite to win the U.S. Open in three-straight stunning sets 6-1, 7-5, 6-4.
second round on Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King
National Tennis Center on Aug. 29, 2024. Larry Marano
Alcaraz, 21, found himself off-balanced, collecting 27 unforced errors and only winning 40 percent of his break point opportunities, and looked defeated and frustrated when exiting the court he won the title on in 2022.
So, who is this Dutchman who took down the star?
Van de Zandschulp, 28, is ranked No. 78 in the world and previously reached as high as No. 22 in August 2022 after achieving a new career-high ranking 14 different times in that same year in which he went 38-29 in men’s singles matches.
With the win, van de Zandschulp became the first Dutchman to take down a top-three player at a Grand Slam since Richard Krajicek beat Pete Sampras in the 1996 Wimbledon quarterfinals.
Nevertheless, Alcaraz isn’t his first shocking upset, as he has previously taken down other fan favorites.
He defeated current world No. 12 Taylor Fritz in the ATP Munich semifinals in 2023 before falling to Denmark’s Holger Rune in the final for the second consecutive year.
He also beat world current No. 8 Casper Ruud of Norway on the way to the ATP Munich final in 2022 and took out current No. 6 Andrey Rublev of Russia to get to the St. Petersburg semifinal in 2021.
Van de Zandschulp also isn’t a stranger to finding success at the U.S. Open.
In 2021, the Wageningen, Netherlands native became the third men’s qualifier to reach the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open in the Open Era (since 1968) while also becoming the first Dutchman to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal since 2004.
He hasn’t advanced as far or better since in a Grand Slam.
This year, van de Zandschulp is 1-3 in Grand Slam matches prior to the U.S. Open.
He only went as far as the second round at Wimbledon.
He entered the match on Thursday night with a 12-18 singles record and a lifetime 5-13 record against top-10 players.
Van de Zandschulp, who turned pro in 2016, also has a rumored relationship since 2011 with Floor Isabel’t Hart, who posted a series of photos on Instagram with the tennis star for his birthday in 2022.
She shared a post from the U.S. Open about van de Zandschulp’s huge win on her Instagram story along with three fire emojis early Friday morning.
After the biggest match of his career, van de Zandschulp will head to the third round to face No. 25 Jack Draper of Great Britain on Saturday.
