It was an evening that definitively turned the upper half of the 2026 US Open draw on its head. Botic van de Zandschulp, ranked 70th in the world and unseeded, gave Australian Alex de Minaur no chance whatsoever in their second-round match on the Grandstand at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. After two hours and 43 minutes, the scoreboard read 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 — a result that could hardly have been more emphatic.
Serve the cornerstone of van de Zandschulp's success
Van de Zandschulp controlled the match through his serve. He held serve on 93 percent of his service games, struck nine aces, and gave de Minaur barely any break points to work with — on the rare occasions the Australian did earn one, the Dutchman saved 80 percent of them. When serving, van de Zandschulp won 77 percent of first-serve points. He also converted 45 percent of his own break points, while de Minaur was broken five times throughout the match and managed just a single break of his own. Those numbers tell the story of a thoroughly one-sided contest.
De Minaur, renowned for his aggressive baseline game, never found his rhythm. Twenty-nine unforced errors and seven double faults illustrated just how much the world number seven struggled under pressure. In the third set, which van de Zandschulp took 6-2, the match became a straightforward display of dominance by the Dutchman.
History reversed — first win at the fifth attempt
The backstory made the victory all the more remarkable: in their four previous meetings, de Minaur had won every time, most recently in Rotterdam in February 2026. This time it was van de Zandschulp who ended the streak — and he did so in the most convincing fashion yet.
For the 30-year-old Dutchman, it was also his second win over a top-10 player during the 2026 US hard-court swing. Just weeks earlier, he had beaten Daniil Medvedev at the Masters in Montreal. At the US Open, van de Zandschulp has a history of making a statement: in 2021 he reached the quarterfinal as a qualifier, and in 2024 he eliminated then third-seeded Carlos Alcaraz in the second round.
Draw in chaos — no top-20 seed remaining
Van de Zandschulp's victory contributed significantly to what has been an extraordinary tournament so far: by the end of the second round, not a single top-20 seed remained in the upper quarter of the draw. The Dutchman is now through to the round of 16, and has every right to believe another deep run at the year's final Grand Slam is well within reach.
