Carlos Alcaraz puts past bad US Open memory behind him with dominant win

Carlos Alcaraz has fond memories of Flushing, of winning the U.S. Open at the age of 19 in 2022 and reaching the semifinals the following summer.

But the moment that sticks with him the most, the match is etched in his mind, isn’t a happy one. It is of last August, when he came to Queens coming off titles at the French Open and Wimbledon.

He hardly had time to unpack, stunningly losing in the second round to Botic van de Zandschulp, an unseeded Dutchman who entered the match the 74th-ranked player in the world.

“If I’m honest, I thought about last year when I stepped on the court,” Alcaraz said Wednesday night. “Some bad thoughts. I was nervous about it, like thinking, ‘OK, I don’t want to do the same thing as I did last year, losing in the second round.’ ”

Early on in his match against unseeded Italian Mattia Bellucci, it was clear the second-seeded Alcaraz wasn’t in danger of another second-round exit.

He won the match’s first five games, dropped just one in the first two sets and cruised to a 6-1, 6-0, 6-3 victory at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

In two matches, Alcaraz has yet to lose his serve, looking every bit like a favorite in this tournament, along with top seed Jannik Sinner.

“I played great from the beginning to the last ball,” Alcaraz said in his on-court interview. “I know Mattia’s level and today wasn’t his day, but I tried to make the most of his mistakes, trying to be in the match getting a good rhythm.

“I think a few things have to improve that I didn’t feel as good as I wanted, but in general I’m really happy with the performance today.”

Alcaraz advanced to meet No. 32-seed Luciano Darderi, a 6-0, 7-6, 2-6, 6-4 winner over American Eliot Spizzirri, on Friday.

Alcaraz wanted to be clear that he still cherishes his 2022 Open championship — it was the first Grand Slam he ever won, making him the youngest man to ever win this tournament.

Great athletes have often talked about losses fueling them more than victories.

That appears to be the case for Alcaraz when it comes to his early exit at the U.S. Open last year.

“It’s more recent, and I just don’t want to do the same things that I did last year,” he said. “So I just want to improve, and I think people in general or myself have the negative thoughts [stick with them more] the positive, or the negative thoughts have more power than the positive thoughts, positive things.

“I think that’s normal. I’m trying not to let them stick in my mind so many times or [spend] so much time on it, but sometimes it happens like this.”