Third seed Carlos Alcaraz was hoping to become only the third man in the modern era to win the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open in the same calendar year. 

Having overcome Alexander Zverev in June to secure the French Open and swept aside 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic a month later in the Wimbledon final, Alcaraz would join Rod Laver and Rafael Nadal in the history books but an unexpected second-round upset sent him home early.

74th seed Botic Van de Zandschulp triumphed 6-1, 7-5, 6-4, over Alcaraz giving the 28-year-old Dutchman the highest-ranked win of his career and ending Alcaraz's 15-match Grand Slam winning streak.

It was the earliest Grand Slam exit for the Spaniard since a second-round exit at Wimbledon 2021 nearly three years ago and brought his 15-match Grand Slam winning streak to an end.

In a post-match interview, Alcaraz admitted to being his own worst enemy stating that he was fighting against himself as much as his opponent. 

"Today I was playing against the opponent, and I was playing against myself, you know, in my mind," he said. "I mean, a lot of emotions that I couldn't control. I was up in some points. Then I lose some points. I get down. It was a rollercoaster."

The Wimbledon champion did admit to being surprised by van de Zandschulp and credited him for his consistent performance. 

"He didn't make a lot of mistakes that I thought he was going to do. So I was, you know, confused a little bit. I didn't know how to manage that, how to deal with it," said Alcaraz.

"I couldn't increase my level. I think my level stayed at the same point all the match, and it wasn't enough to win the match or to give myself the chance to get into the match or try to give myself chances."

21-year-old Alcaraz, who has seen a meteoric rise to tennis stardom over the past couple of years, had never had to come back from a two sets deficit in a Grand Slam before and produced 27 unforced errors in his loss to van de Zandschulp.

It was only his second victory against a top-five player for van de Zandschulp who became the first Dutchman to defeat a top-three player at a Grand Slam since Richard Krajicek defeated then world number one Pete Sampras in the Wimbledon 1996 quarter-finals.

"I'm a little lost for words. It was an incredible evening out here in my first time in the night session on Arthur Ashe," said van de Zandschulp. "I had some unbelievable points at the net. I tried to stay calm. You have to keep your head against these guys otherwise they will take advantage."

After his sensational dismantling of Djokovic in the Wimbledon final, Alcaraz fell to the Serb under a month ago in the Men's Singles Gold medal match. A resolute Novak Djokovic completed his quest for all honours as the hell-bent 37-year-old finally got his hands on a much-desired Olympic gold medal much to the dismay of the 21-year-old.

The Spaniard, however, refused to blame the busy summer schedule. "I'm thinking right now that I'm not changing, and that's the problem," he said. "So I have to think about it, I have to learn about it."

"I took a little break after the Olympic Games. I thought it was enough. Probably it wasn't enough. Probably I came here without as much energy as I thought I was going to have but I don't want to put that as an excuse. I have to think about it and I have to learn about it."