Four of the highest-ranked seeds in this section – Alcaraz, Hubert Hurkacz, Sebastian Korda and Karen Khachanov – have all now been eliminated, and although No 10 seed Alex de Minaur has reached the third round, he is carrying a lingering hip injury. De Minaur will also face a Briton next when he meets the resilient Dan Evans.
Alcaraz made a lamentable start, playing with neither intensity nor accuracy and seeing the first set slip away in barely half-an-hour. He must have imagined that he would be able to retrieve the situation. But even when he did begin to improve his level, van der Zandschulp continued to match him in every department.
Even though he had never previously beaten a top-five player at a major, van der Zandschulp remained astonishingly composed as he mixed big serves with athletic defence and even outdid Alcaraz in the way he controlled points from the net.
It was a breathtaking display from a man who had felt so demoralised after his first-round loss to Fabio Fognini at May’s French Open that he considered retiring at the untimely age of 28.
“I am a little bit lost for words,” said van der Zandschulp in his on-court interview with Mary Joe Fernandez. “I got a lot of confidence from the last match [a straight-sets win over former Wimbledon junior champion Denis Shapovalov]. I believed from point one that I could make something in this match.If you want to beat one of these guys you have to be unbelievable calm.”
Alcaraz admitted after the loss that he was still trying to compute what had just happened. He didn’t deny, however, that he was feeling fatigued after a long season that has already brought him those two major victories and the silver medal at the Paris Olympics.
“Tennis calendar is tough,” said Alcaraz. “I took some days off after the Olympics and I thought that would be enough for me. It was not.
“He played really good tennis. I thought he would give me more free points. It was confusing a bit. I didn’t know how to manage or deal with it.”
