Li Tu, the Australian qualifier facing 2022 US Open champion Carlos Alcaraz, has been talking big ahead of the opening match.
Tu planned to “give Alcaraz hell three, four, five times.” He gave the third-place finisher more than most observers, including Alcaraz, expected.
“He surprised me a little bit,” Alcaraz said after his 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory – his 15th consecutive Grand Slam win – under the lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium. “In the first set, it was obvious that he was nervous going into the match. After the first set, he grew up. He started playing really great tennis. I was surprised. I’ll be following him – his results – from now on because I’m pretty sure I’ll see him again very, very soon, playing at this level.”
At first, it seemed as if things were going smoothly for the 21-year-old Alcaraz.
He won 11 of the first 12 points of the match and made it to the first set.
Tu was nervous, missed shots and seemed overwhelmed while playing in this large stadium.
However, he built some confidence by taking two games from Alcaraz at the end of the first set and holding his own in the second set.
He managed to break Alcaraz twice and won five set points.
On the fifth, he converted the ball and equalized the game at 1:1.
It was a rare sloppy performance from Alcaraz, who made 18 unforced errors in the set.
It was the first time since Wimbledon in 2022 that the Spaniard lost a set in the opening round of a Grand Slam.
“After the first set, I only made two unforced errors. In the second set, I made 18. That was the big difference for me,” Alcaraz said. “He started playing better. He obviously served better, played more aggressively and didn’t make as many errors as he did in the first set. But for myself, going from two to 18 unforced errors was a big difference.”
From then on, Alcaraz settled down.
He won 12 of his last 16 games and nine of his last ten, advancing after 2 hours and 42 minutes.
He did not lose his serve in the last two sets, reduced his errors and met the unseeded Dutchman Botic van De Zandschulp in the second round on Thursday.
Alcaraz, the winner of this year’s French Open and Wimbledon, could be the only player alongside Rod Laver (1969) and Rafael Nadal (2010) to win these two Grand Slam tournaments as well as the US Open in the same year.
He plans to stay in Queens for a while and possibly make a piece of history.
“I love playing here in New York,” Alcaraz said. “The crowd gives you an energy that you probably don’t feel in other places.”
