Botic van de Zandschulp defeats Carlos Alcaraz in New York, and more of 2024's biggest ATP upsets

The 2024 tennis season was filled with noteworthy stories, breakthrough moments, and countless trophy lifts. But what were the best matches of the year that was?

We rolled the tape, and this week, TENNIS.com counted down some of the best ATP matches of the past year (after counting down our WTA picks last week). We're starting our countdown with five underdogs who rose to the occasion and authored the biggest upsets of the season.

5. Luca Nardi def. Novak Djokovic, Indian Wells R2

An old saying preaches that you should never meet your heroes. It doesn't say anything about beating them.

When 20-year-old Luca Nardi got into the BNP Paribas Open main draw as a lucky loser in March, the then-world No. 123 Italian freely admitted to being a relative unknown quantity: to the fans, the tennis world, and even to Novak Djokovic, his second-round opponent.

But after a  6-4, 3-6, 6-3 victory against Djokovic in the second round, where he became the lowest-ranked player to ever defeat Djokovic in a Masters 1000 or Grand Slam event, Nardi was anonymous no more.

With six aces, including one to win the match, and 34 winners (double Djokovic's total) the youngster's fearless display left the 24-time Grand Slam singles champion merely shaking his head in disbelief on more than one occasion. Djokovic's frustrations came to a head early in the second set, when he disputed a perceived hindrance with umpire Greg Allensworth en route to breaking Nardi's serve, but the momentum was once-and-for-all wrestled back by the Italian in the third set.

In his post-match interview with Tennis Channel, Nardi, who called Djokovic an idol and had a poster of him hanging on the door of his childhood bedroom since age 8, called the win "a miracle."

“I’m a 20-years-old guy, 100 in the world, and beating Novak. So, crazy. Crazy," he said.

“Before this night, no one knew me. I hope now the crowd enjoyed the game. I’m super happy with this one.”

Read more: Luca Nardi defeats Novak Djokovic: Teachable moments from a stunning upset

4. Andrey Rublev def. Carlos Alcaraz, Madrid QF

Andrey Rublev's up-and-down season was firmly in the trenches when he arrived to compete at the Mutua Madrid Open in April. The Top 10 stalwart had lost four matches in a row, with just one win on his ledger since his controversial default from the semifinals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships more than six weeks earlier.

But after nearly two weeks at the Caja Magica, Rublev left with his second career Masters 1000 trophy, and a quarterfinal upset of Carlos Alcaraz was key to it. Having lost to Alcaraz in their only prior meeting, at the 2023 ATP Finals, Rublev bounced back from losing the first set to snap Alcaraz's 14-match winning streak at the tournament, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Post-match, Rublev was careful to keep the victory, his first Top 3 victory since the 2022 Nitto ATP Finals, in perspective.

"I don't know what to say. Maybe this week is good but next week will be back to the same, to better not to think this way," Rublev said. "When you start to think how good everything is, which is what was happening at the beginning of the season, then six weeks I wasn't winning anything.

"It's better not to think at all: it's not bad, not good, it's just a moment. It happens to everyone; every player has been through these moments, and the most important thing is to keep working, keep improving, to keep remembering that one week can change everything."

Rublev went on to defeat Taylor Fritz and Felix Auger-Aliassime in the final to win the title, in the midst of what he later revealed to be a health scare, but it proved to be a watershed moment for his year. He reached a semifinal or better only twice from then on.

3. Taylor Fritz def. Alexander Zverev, Wimbledon R4

The rivalry between Taylor Fritz and Alexander Zverev expanded by five installments in 2024, but none grabbed headlines quite as much as Fritz's five-set triumph over the German at Wimbledon.

Looking to match his all-time best Wimbledon result, Fritz came into his fourth-round match against Zverev having lost five of their first eight matches, including a routine loss in Rome during the clay-court season. Zverev, meanwhile, was looking to break new ground at SW19: He had twice lost in the fourth round, despite having reached the semifinals or better at the other three majors.

As Steve Tignor wrote at the time, "the American found himself in a familiar place on Monday afternoon: Playing a mid-round match at a Gand Slam, versus a higher-ranked European opponent, and trailing badly. Novak Djokovic, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Rafael Nadal, Casper Ruud, Zverev himself: Fritz has faced them all in the quarters or the round of 16 at the majors over the last few years, and he has almost always walked away empty-handed."

But as Zverev struggled with what was later revealed to be a bone bruise in his knee, the tenor of the match changed. And after three-and-a-half-hours, it was Fritz who moved through to the final eight, 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(3), 6-3.

But the fireworks weren't just reserved for the match. A lengthy handshake and prolonged discussion between the two followed, where Zverev appeared to take issue with some members of Fritz’s player box who were a bit too vocal in their support of the No. 13 seed. Repeatedly saying he took no issue with Fritz personally, nor his coaches, Zverev nonetheless said that others in the American's player box "not maybe from the tennis world," ... "were a bit over the top."

"He came from two sets to love down. Respect," Zverev added. "I was on one leg today. He is playing great. ... But also I do know that the match was not high level. I mean, it wasn't a particularly great tennis match. It was, like, there wasn't really long rallies because I couldn't play long rallies. There wasn't really physicality.

"So ... credit to him that he came back, but it wasn't a great tennis match, you know?"

But the post-match fireworks didn't stop there. Morgan Riddle, Fritz's longtime girlfriend, saying that Frtiz's win was "for the girls," perhaps a not-so-thinly-veiled reference to the pair of domestic abuse allegations brought by Zverev's ex-partners.

Fritz went on to also defeat Zverev at the US Open, Laver Cup, and the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals. Will more sparks fly between these rivals in 2025?

2. Daniil Medvedev def. Jannik Sinner, Wimbledon QF

A round later at SW19, Danill Medvedev solved a similar puzzle that had stumped him more often than not recently: Jannik Sinner. After beating a fledging version of Sinner in their first six head-to-head matches, Medvedev had lost the next five, that is, to reach a second consecutive Wimbledon semifinal.

Sinner, whose physicality proved an asset as he came from two-sets down to beat a fading Medvedev months prior in the Australian Open final, was snake-bitten by his body at times in the four-hour match. He received a medical timeout for illness in the third set,

"I knew if I was going to beat Jannik it was going to be a tough match," Medvedev said afterwards. "He is not a guy you are going to beat easily. At one moment he wasn't feeling too good but he started playing better and I am happy I managed to stay at a high level. There were some great points, it was a great match and I am happy to win."

The victory was Medvedev's first Top 5 win of the season, and he struck 55 winners to 49 unforced errors to do it. Sinner, despite whatever he was feeling, hit 61 winners to 45 unforced errors.

"It is very tough because I could feel he wasn't moving that well," Medvedev continued. "You want to play more points to make him suffer a little bit more and at the same time you know at one point he is going to think he can't run anymore and will go full power and that is what he did. He had set points to win the third set. In a way, I would have preferred to not have this situation but everything turned out well."

But the match was historic not just for Medvedev personally. It was the 36th match to go five sets at Wimbledon this year, breaking the record for a single major event that was previously shared by the 1983 US Open and 2024 Australian Open.

1. Botic van de Zandschulp def. Carlos Alcaraz, US Open R2

About three months before scoring the biggest ATP upset of the 2024 season, Botic van de Zandschulp was ready to call it quits ... maybe. Scuffling for form for much of the first half, the Dutchman dropped out of the Top 100 in mid-April, and by Roland Garros, told Dutch media after a first-round loss to Fabio Fognini (the "worst match of [his] life," he said) that he was considering retirement.

But tennis is a fickle sport, and two finals at ATP Challenger events got the one-time US Open quarterfinalist back into some semblance of form ahead of returning to the New York Grand Slam.

Despite that, no one saw this one coming. Under the lights of Arthur Ashe Stadium, a stage where Alcaraz usually shines brightest, this year's Roland Garros and Wimbledon champion fell flat. The 2022 US Open winner was bundled out, 6-1, 7-5, 6-4.

Afterwards, van de Zanschulp said he was most pleased with his even-keeled emotions: a far cry from the frazzled figure he cut at Roland Garros.

Alcaraz, too, was baffled by that stability.

“I thought he was going to give me more free points," a stunned Spaniard said post-match. “He didn’t make a lot of mistakes that I thought he was going to do. So I was, you know, [confused] a little bit. I didn’t know how to manage that, how to deal with it.

“I couldn’t increase my level.”

It was not the first, not the last time that Alcaraz was out-of-sorts in the closing months of the season, dating back to his draining loss to Novak Djokovic in the gold-medal match at the Paris Games. But will he learn his lesson for 2025?