Arthur Ashe is witness to a complete blunder, a night-time surprise on the centre court. All logic is blown out of the water, because few, perhaps only the most daring, could imagine that Botic van de Zandschulp, a tennis player who in the two previous encounters with Carlos Alcaraz had not managed to take a set from the Murcian and whose limit in a Grand Slam was the quarterfinals signed three years ago in the tournament he is currently playing, could beat him at this point in New York, leaving the fans astonished. Is this Alcaraz or a substitute? No trace of a smile, no trace of enjoyment. He is a wandering and bewildered champion. Against all odds, he was struck down: 6-1, 7-5 and 6-4, in 2h 19m. The Dutchman, 28 years old and 74th in the world, celebrates with elegance and poise. “From the first point I thought I had a chance,” he says. And the defeated player, hurt by his most severe defeat in a Grand Slam, admits: “On this tour I have taken steps backwards, and I don’t understand why. I have to see what is happening to me.”
It is the story of a collapse.
After entering the fray, the shrewd Van de Zandschulp because the one in front of him is a sea of doubts and he has lost his compass, Alcaraz puts his finger to his temple, stares at his bench and shakes his head several times: ‘I’m not there, I’m not there, I’m definitely not there’. And indeed, he is there but the Murcian is not there, physically present but not mentally. The trap is huge. Where has he gone? He has gotten himself into a great labyrinth and far from finding the key, he continues trying in vain to decipher the mystery of a night that is taking him down without mercy, biting him, swallowing him up. Accustomed to sailing with the wind in his favour, he has already lost the second set and the tangle of the court has also become embedded in his head, with no tactical solution nor the traditional finesse in his hand. He can’t see, he can’t work, he can’t feel the ball. Nothing works out for him.
He unnecessarily attacks a ball that was heading for the corridor, he brakes too fast, he rushes, he throws a high drop shot and chooses badly. It is, without a doubt, the hardest evening of his short career, also interspersed with the impeccable bet of his rival, linear and determined from the beginning to the end, all good work and all good manners. This time it is he who hits perfect lobs, who hits meteorically flat, who masterfully returns from the bounce and who makes the court tiny while the public, perplexed, keeps for moments an unimaginable silence in these parts, home of noise in tennis: yes, alert, Carlitos is groggy, he has mentally collapsed. Alcaraz does not find a place, obstinate and negative, submerged in an emotional flood of troubled waters that begins quickly and has no remedy. Mr. firecracker in New York.
If sport and tennis are a state of mind, the Olympic defeat against Novak Djokovic seems to have had a far more profound effect than expected. The Paris episode was followed by the quadruple shock against the asphalt in Cincinnati and now this stumble in Flushing Meadows, the same place that saw him touch the sky when he was 19 years old – triumphant and proclaimed then the youngest number one in history – and which now shakes him violently. Anything can happen in a Grand Slam, always convoluted and unpredictable, historically treacherous, to which tennis players arrive conditioned by the tremendous effort made throughout the course and with their deposits already just enough. Maybe a bad day, maybe the legacy of a spring and a summer at full speed. Too much adrenaline, too many emotions, excessive intensity perhaps.
In any case, nothing foreshadowed the fall, even though Tuesday’s opening match against the unknown Li Tu offered some clues. Talent requires the company of faith, and today he lacks stamina, losing space, disorganized and warring in a disoriented manner, without any real conviction. There is no flame. The anger is growing, the frustration is multiplied by a thousand and he curses in soliloquy, he simply cannot find himself. Van de Zandschulp continues to insist and the review says that he did not manage to overcome the seven precedents with two sets against him. It seems raw. From the start boxhis people try to revive him.
“Come on, go! Calm and positive all the time!”, his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, asks him, whose expression becomes more grim as the action progresses and the breaks decide the outcome. There is no turning back. The Murcian has gone off course, very serious from the beginning and, as if that were not enough, the one in front is touched by the magic wand. Errors follow (27), dirty hits, the service breaks down. He hits himself with the racket on the head and denies it again and again, without finding any air except when he hits a pass with his right at the beginning of the second set. He looks at the crowd and tries to feed himself, but it is a mere mirage. He returns the ball break In the second and third, another illusion. He doesn’t believe, nothing changes. The script is flat. The mourning is completely blurred and he says goodbye, asking for forgiveness with his hands.
No, this time Alcaraz was not there.
NUMBER ONE FALLS AWAY
AC | New York
Upon his arrival in North America, the tennis player said that one of his greatest goals between now and the end of the season was to finish the year on top. Now, however, this possibility is becoming more remote due to the significant impact of this defeat on the ranking.
Last year, the Murcian reached the semi-finals of the tournament, losing to Russian Daniil Medvedev, which means he will lose 670 points and risks losing his place on the podium of the list, depending on what happens from now on.
He is now overtaken by German Alexander Zverev in the virtual rankings, and Djokovic and Medvedev could also follow. Italy’s Jannik Sinner is at the top and all four are still in contention, while he weighs up and decides what to do next.
He still has a route of his own choosing ahead of him: the Davis Cup group stage (10-15 September in Valencia), the Laver Cup (20-22 September) and then the final stretch, with the Asian tour and the ATP Cup on the horizon; he could take part in Beijing, the Shanghai Masters and Paris-Bercy, and the showpiece event in Turin.
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