Botic van de Zandschulp Advances to US Open Quarterfinals After Epic Five-Set Battle
In the New York night, when legs go heavy and minds start to blur, Botic van de Zandschulp refused to let his US Open story end.
Down two sets, staring at a match point in the third-set tiebreak against Frenchman Arthur Gea, the 30-year-old Dutchman dragged himself back from the brink and turned a lost cause into a five-set classic. After 5 hours and 13 minutes – the fourth-longest match in US Open history – he walked off a winner and a quarterfinalist once more.
The final score read 3:6, 6:7 (0), 7:6 (7), 7:6 (3), 6:4. The numbers only hint at the chaos.
From the edge of defeat
For two sets, Gea looked like the man who belonged on this stage. Van de Zandschulp dropped the opener 3:6, then watched the second slip away in a flat 6:7 (0) tiebreak, the Dutchman blanked and visibly rattled.
The Frenchman, who had entered the main draw as a lucky loser after 2022 US Open finalist Casper Ruud pulled out with a back injury, kept swinging freely. He had nothing to lose. Suddenly, he had everything to gain.
In the third-set tiebreak, Gea earned a match point and stood one clean strike from history. No lucky loser had ever reached a Grand Slam men’s singles quarterfinal. One point, and he would rewrite that line.
Van de Zandschulp ripped it away.
He saved the match point, stole the tiebreak 9–7, and with it, the momentum. The stadium, which had been waiting for a reason to believe in a comeback, finally had one.
Tiebreak after tiebreak
The pressure flipped. Gea, so loose for two and a half sets, suddenly had to protect a lead that was shrinking by the game.
Van de Zandschulp leaned on his experience. This was not new territory for him in New York – he first reached the US Open quarterfinals in 2021 – and he began to play like a man who understood the length and cruelty of five-set tennis.
The fourth set followed the same nerve-shredding pattern. Gea refused to fold, held his ground on serve, and forced yet another tiebreak. But the Dutchman now owned the big points. He dominated the breaker 7–3, dragging the match into a deciding set that had felt unthinkable two hours earlier.
The Frenchman’s dream run, and that sliver of history, started to fray.
Dutch finish, French heartbreak
In the fifth, van de Zandschulp finally carved out the separation he had been chasing all night. The rallies stayed brutal, the tension stayed high, but the Dutchman’s weight of shot and calm under fire made the difference.
A single break was enough. He closed it out 6:4, sealing his second career US Open quarterfinal after that 2021 breakthrough and underlining a quietly strong fortnight in which he had already knocked out Australian Alex de Minaur in the second round.
For Gea, the defeat will sting. As a late entrant, he had come within a point of becoming the first lucky loser ever to reach the last eight at a Grand Slam in men’s singles. For four hours, that storyline felt alive. One point short, it vanished.
Blockx and Khachanov join last-eight cast
Elsewhere in the draw, history did get made.
Belgian No. 28 seed Alexander Blockx battled past 24th seed Francisco Cerundolo 6:3, 4:6, 7:5, 7:5, becoming the first Belgian player ever to reach the US Open quarterfinals. His composure in two tight closing sets pushed him over the line and into the biggest match of his career.
Waiting for him there will be Karen Khachanov. The Russian outlasted 14th-seeded American Learner Tien in another five-set grind, 7:5, 4:6, 6:7 (6), 6:1, 6:4. After letting a third-set tiebreak slip, Khachanov surged through the fourth, then held firm in the fifth to silence the home hope and secure his place in the last eight.
Blockx and Khachanov now collide for a spot in the semifinals. Van de Zandschulp, still standing after one of the tournament’s great marathons, waits to see who will test his endurance next – and whether New York will give him another night like this.
