Carlos Alcaraz walked onto Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday night at the US Open carrying more than just his racquet bag. For all the fond memories Flushing Meadows has given him, lifting the trophy as a 19-year-old in 2022, backing it up with a semifinal run the following year, there was still one wound unhealed.

Last summer, fresh off back-to-back French Open and Wimbledon triumphs, he was stunned in the second round by unseeded Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp. Even he himself admitted that loss lingered more vividly than his victories.

“If I’m honest, I thought about last year when I stepped on the court,” he said. “Some bad thoughts. I was nervous about it, like thinking, ‘OK, I don’t want to do the same thing as I did last year, losing in the second round.’”

This time, there was

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