Carlos Alcaraz, Naomi Osaka lose in the 2nd round of the US Open : NPR

Naomi Osaka (left) and Carlos Alcaraz react during their second-round matches on Thursday at the US Open in Queens, New York.

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The US Open will go ahead without two of tennis’ biggest stars after Carlos Alcaraz and Naomi Osaka lost their matches on Thursday.

They were both defeated in the second round of the tournament in New York, which runs until September 9 and is the last of the four Grand Slams of the year.

Alcaraz’s elimination is particularly surprising given that the world’s third-best male tennis player has not lost before the quarterfinals in any of his three previous US Open appearances.

In fact, the Notes from Associated PressHe has not been defeated so early at any major tournament since his second-round exit at Wimbledon in 2021. The 21-year-old Spaniard won Roland Garros in June and Wimbledon in July, and also won a silver medal at the Paris Olympics.

But his streak of 15 Grand Slam matches won came to an abrupt end this week thanks to a much lesser-known player, the 74th-seeded Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp.

The 28-year-old Dutchman defeated Alcaraz in straight sets: 6-1, 7-5, 6-4. It was a particularly triumphant victory for a player who has reached only one Grand Slam quarterfinal in his career — at the 2021 US Open — and who has publicly considered retirement earlier this year.

“I’m actually a bit speechless,” said van de Zandschulp afterwards. “It was an incredible evening for me.”

On Saturday he will face number 25 Jack Draper from the United Kingdom in the third round.

Analysts say Alcaraz seemed out of shape From the start he misses the tricks he normally takes, makes two unforced errors in a row (27) and scores an unusually low number of winning tricks (21).

Alcaraz, who won the 2021 US Open men’s title, acknowledged during a press conference after the match Thursday that he had not put as much energy into the competition as he would have liked, saying the short break he took after the Olympics “probably … was not enough.”

He has lost three of his four matches since returning from Paris, including the opening round of the Cincinnati Open earlier this month, in which the usually optimistic player repeatedly break his racket in frustration (and later apologized). Alcaraz also interrupted a recent training session after spraining his ankle, the Washington Post reported.

But he took responsibility for his shortcomings, telling reporters it had been a “battle against myself, in my mind, during the game” and praising Van de Zandschulp for his good play.

“He didn’t make a lot of mistakes that I thought he would make, so I was a little confused,” Alcaraz said. “I didn’t know how to handle it, how to deal with it. I couldn’t raise my level.”

Osaka’s US Open comeback dreams shattered

Naomi Osaka scores during the second round of the women’s singles at the US Open on Thursday.

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Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images

For Osaka, it was more of a surprise that she made it to the second round at all.

The world number 88 in women’s singles, once ranked number one, has recently taken two breaks, in 2021 for mental health reasons and in 2022 after the birth of her daughter.

The 26-year-old Japanese player has won four Grand Slams, including two US Open women’s singles titles (in 2018 and 2020), but has yet to advance beyond the second round of a major tournament since her return to the tennis court.

She went into Thursday’s competition with a good feeling, helped by some great performances. custom outfits and an energetic first round victory.

She defeated 10th-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 6-2 on Tuesday. It was her first win against a top 10 opponent in four years, and clearly an emotional experience, as Osaka could be seen wipe away tears then.

Osaka played a competitive match against No. 52 Karolina Muchova, but it wasn’t enough. The Czech player held her ground — even in a thrilling tiebreaker — to win 6-3, 7-6 (5).

Muchova, 28, reached both the French Open final and the US Open semifinals in a successful 2023 season, but was sidelined for 10 months with a wrist injury and was only able to returned to the circuit in June. On Saturday she will play against Russian Anastasia Potapova.

Osaka said after the match that she felt nervous during high-pressure moments, and suggested that she needed to play more matches on big stages to get used to that feeling. She said she was proud of herself for getting this far, but she still takes losses like Thursday’s personally.

“It’s a dramatic word, but I feel like my heart dies every time I lose,” she said. “It’s very bad, but I’ve tried to be more mature and learn more about it and talk about it.”