Australian qualifier Lee Tu, who will face 2022 U.S. Open champion Carlos Alcaraz, was making bold statements ahead of his opening match.
Tu was going to give Alcaraz “three, four, five sets of hell” and he gave the third-seeded Alcaraz more than most of the crowd, including Alcaraz, expected.
“He surprised me a little bit,” Alcaraz said after winning 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 under the lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium for his 15th consecutive Grand Slam victory. “In the first set, it was obvious he started the match nervous. After the first set, he grew up and started playing really good tennis. I was surprised. Now I'll be keeping an eye on his results, because if he's playing at this level, I'm sure we'll be seeing him play soon.”
Initially, it was thought that the 21-year-old Alcaraz would win easily.
He won 11 of the first 12 points of the match to take the first set.
Tu was nervous, missed shots and seemed overwhelmed playing in a big stadium.
But he was able to take two games from Alcaraz late in the first set, which gave him more confidence and allowed him to challenge Alcaraz in the second set.
He beat Alcaraz twice and had five set points.
He scored it in the fifth set to tie the match at one set apiece.
Alcaraz played an uncharacteristically sloppy game, making 18 unforced errors in the set.
It was the first time since Wimbledon 2022 that the Spaniard had dropped a set in his opening match at a Grand Slam.
“After the first set, I only made two unforced errors. In the second set, I made 18. So that was the big difference for me,” Alcaraz said. “He started playing better.” [He was] Obviously I was serving better, I was playing more aggressively and not making as many mistakes as I did in the first set, but as for me, I went from making 2 unforced errors to making 18. [that was] It makes a big difference to me.”
Alcaraz calmed down from there.
He won 12 of his final 16 matches and nine of his final 10 matches in two hours, 42 minutes to advance.
He didn't lose serve in the final two sets, cut down on errors and set up a match against unseeded Dutchman Botic van de Zantschulp in the second round on Thursday.
Alcaraz, this year's French Open and Wimbledon champion, is bidding to join Rod Laver (1969) and Rafael Nadal (2010) as the only players to win both Grand Slam tournaments and the U.S. Open in the same year.
He plans to stick around in Queens for a while and potentially make history.
“I love playing here in New York,” Alcaraz said. “The crowd gives me an energy that I don't get on other courts.”
