Carlos Alcaraz being shocked by Botic van de Zandschulp will cost him dearly

No one saw this coming. After delivering victories at the French Open and Wimbledon and playing a fantastically close match against Novak Djokovic in the Olympic final, Carlos Alcaraz lost in the second round of the US Open to current ATP No. 74 Botic van de Zandschulp. Moreover, the Spaniard lost in three sets and was clearly overmatched.

One might try to argue that Alcaraz tends to fade a bit as the tennis season starts to head into the fall, but he still holds a 17-3 record at the US Open. He won the event in 2022, which was the first major he won. Alcaraz was not only one of the favorites this year, he was likely the favorite. No more.

In his post-match comments to the media, Alcaraz admitted that he was battling himself as much as he was his opponent. That might be a different way of accepting defeat than Djokovic would - the Serb is notorious for trying to give his opponent as much credit as possible - but the Spaniard was trying to be honest.

Carlos Alcaraz suffers shocking loss at the US Open that will likely cost him in the rankings

He also said that he would have to learn from the defeat mentally, but he was not planning on changing how he plays. A common criticism of the Spaniard is that he is sometimes too aggressive and makes some points more difficult than they should be. That may be so, but what is difficult is arguing with the results the 21-year-old has had. He has already won five majors.

His loss is going to cost him in the rankings. Alexander Zverev is now guaranteed to rank above him as the live ATP rankings have Alcaraz with 6,690 points and Zverev with 6,775. The German's points will only go higher with more wins at the US Open, but they won't decrease.

Currently, Zverev is ATP No. 2 and Alcaraz is No. 3. The Spaniard could also be passed by Djokovic - whose own ranking took a dip ahead of the event since he earned 2,000 points by winning the tournament last year - as well as Daniil Medvedev. There is a high likelihood that Alcaraz will rank no better than No. 4 when the tournament is done.