Botic van de Zandschulp Advances to US Open Quarterfinals After Epic Five-Set Match
Botic van de Zandschulp walked off Louis Armstrong Stadium looking like a man who had emptied every last drop. He had to. Anything less and he would have been gone in straight sets.
Instead, the Dutchman is a US Open quarterfinalist again after surviving match point and dragging himself past French lucky loser Arthur Gea in a five-set epic that lasted 5 hours, 13 minutes – the fourth-longest match in the tournament’s history.
The scoreline tells only part of the story: 3-6, 6-7(0), 7-6(7), 7-6(3), 6-4. The context fills in the rest.
From the brink to another New York breakthrough
Van de Zandschulp, 30, had already shaken up the draw by knocking out Australian Alex de Minaur in the second round. On Monday in New York, he spent most of the afternoon and evening staring at the exit.
Gea, who slipped into the main draw when 2022 runner-up Casper Ruud withdrew with a back injury, played like a man determined to rewrite history. No male lucky loser has ever reached a grand slam singles quarterfinal. For two sets, he looked ready to change that.
The Frenchman controlled the opening set 6-3, then tightened his grip with a ruthless 7-0 tiebreak in the second. Van de Zandschulp’s game frayed. Gea’s didn’t. The Dutchman’s shoulders sagged, his timing wavered, and the match seemed to be racing towards a tidy, straight-sets conclusion.
Then came the third-set tiebreak.
Gea earned match point. One swing away from the last eight, one clean strike from a slice of grand slam history. Van de Zandschulp refused to let it happen. He saved it, snatched the breaker 9-7, and with it, turned a match that had been slipping away into a long, gruelling examination of nerve and endurance.
The pressure finally told on the Frenchman. Van de Zandschulp edged another tiebreak in the fourth, 7-3, dragging the contest into a deciding set as the clock pushed deep into a fifth hour. Gea’s legs began to fade. The Dutchman’s belief did not.
A single break in the fifth was enough. Van de Zandschulp closed it out 6-4 to reach his second US Open quarterfinal, matching his 2021 run but, in his own estimation, surpassing it in significance.
“I think this is probably better than the first quarterfinal I made here,” he said afterwards, still processing what he had just done. “It hasn’t sunk in yet, but I think tomorrow it’s going to be a great feeling.”
Gea’s near-miss and a lost slice of history
For Gea, the loss will sting. He had the match on his racquet, the narrative in his hands. A late entrant after Ruud’s withdrawal, he stood on the verge of becoming the first lucky loser to reach a men’s singles quarterfinal at a major.
He leaves New York without the record but with the respect that comes from pushing a seasoned hard-court player to the absolute limit in one of the longest matches the US Open has seen.
Van de Zandschulp, meanwhile, extends a love affair with Flushing Meadows that began with that 2021 breakthrough. This one, carved out from two sets down and match point down, feels more like a survival story than a fairytale. That may be exactly what he needs for the week ahead.
Blockx makes Belgian history, Khachanov digs deep
On the same day van de Zandschulp was stretching the clock, Alexander Blockx was bending history.
The 28th seed beat 24th seed Francisco Cerundolo 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 to become the first Belgian man ever to reach the US Open quarterfinals. No drama in the record books, but plenty on court: tight sets, fine margins, and a pair of 7-5 finishes that underlined Blockx’s composure when the set was on the line.
Waiting for him in the last eight is Karen Khachanov, who needed his own five-set grind to get there. The Russian outlasted American 14th seed Learner Tien 7-5, 4-6, 6-7(6), 6-1, 6-4, riding out a mid-match dip before surging through the fourth and holding firm in the fifth.
It sets up a quarterfinal clash between a man breaking new ground for his country and a player who has made a habit of going deep at majors.
Zverev closes the night
Men’s top seed Alexander Zverev closed the day’s schedule against Italian 21st seed Luciano Darderi, a final act on a day that had already delivered endurance, history and heartbreak.
Van de Zandschulp will wake up sore, but still standing in a draw that keeps opening doors for those willing to suffer. The question now is simple: after a match like this, how much more does he have left to give New York?
