ROME -- The second round at the US Open ended with two extraordinary upsets. Actually, the women’s encounter of Naomi Osaka and Czech Karolina Muchova wasn’t entirely a surprise to those who follow tennis closely. Although Osaka holds four Grand Slam titles, two of them at the US Open, her game has gone walkabout for the past few years and her ranking fell so low she needed a wild card to enter the tournament in 2024. She has suffered well-publicized emotional problems followed by the birth of a baby. Because of her Japanese ancestry on her mother’s side, she has achieved pan-Pacific popularity and is said to have accumulated a fortune from sponsors of nearly $100 million. If the money and the baby and the mental problems weren’t enough to distract her, she seems to have become more interested in racial politics – her father’s Haitian – and fashion design than in backhands and forehands. That she lost to the business-like Muchova was less puzzling than Osaka’s breezy post-match interview in which she summed up her reaction – “Losing sucks.” Look for that quote to be stenciled on t-shirts.

 Far more astounding was Carlos Alcaraz’ lackluster performance against Bostic van de Zandschulp. After winning this year’s French Open and Wimbledon, the muscular Spaniard was expected to contend for the year’s third Grand Slam at Flushing Meadows. Instead, he seriously underestimated his opponent and admitted afterward that he counted on getting many more free points from the 28-year-old Dutchman, now ranked a modest 74.

 Even after Alcaraz frittered away the first set 6-1, the crowd remained confident that he would come back. Instead, he was plagued by patches of inexplicably poor play. Every sizzling forehand winner he hit seemed followed by an unforced error. Then, too, his selection of shots was shoddy for an experienced professional. All too often he attempted drop shots when he had a clear opening for cross-court drives. After he lost the second set 7-5, the crowd went ominously quiet. Spectators realized something was seriously amiss. Van de Zandschulp managed to keep the Spaniard at bay at the baseline with well-placed serves and winning rushes to the net. Alcaraz seemed not to register the fact that they were playing on a fast court, but the Dutchman kept this foremost in mind and won 28 of 35 points at the net.

 Van de Zandschulp broke to go ahead 3-2 in the third set. But then Alcaraz rebounded, winning several long groundstroke exchanges. When he evened the score at 3-3, he held a hand to his ear, gesturing for more applause. You’d have thought he was leading, not losing.  A slogan from Billie Jean King is plastered to the wall at Arthur Ashe Stadium, “Pressure is a privilege.” Diehard Alcaraz fans no doubt believed the Spaniard would display a champion’s cool confidence. Instead, it was the Dutchman who refused to wilter in the crucial games. He hit an ace to even the set at 4 games apiece, then watched as Alcaraz fell apart, tamely losing his serve to give Van de Zandschulp a chance to serve out the biggest win of his career. Alcaraz netted a forehand for 0-15, then netted a backhand for 0-30, and blew a volley for 0-40. Van de Zandschulp won the game, set and match with a serve Alcaraz couldn’t handle.

 He appeared to be in total shock. No smile, no celebration, no histrionic handwaving or dropping to his knees, no exuberant embrace of his opponent as they shook hands at the net. It took time for the truth to settle in. Carlos Alcaraz had been comprehensively beaten, and journalists as well as fans struggled to understand what had gone wrong. The simple truth was that Alcaraz had been outplayed, and once he started losing, he appeared to have no Plan B, no way of changing the momentum, no way of refinding a winning formula. That will have to wait until his entourage does an autopsy on his corpse.