Top seed Carlos Alcaraz will face British one-hander Dan Evans in the third round of the 2023 US Open. The match will be played on Saturday, September 2, 2023.

Carlos Alcaraz’s opening-round win over Dominik Koepfer didn’t quite have a US Open title defense feel to it after his opponent was forced to retire just an hour into the contest due to injury. But there was a contest in the second round where big-serving Lloyd Harris briefly threatened to take the defending champion into a fourth set of their second-round match, before the young Spaniard regained control of the match late in the third set to win 6-3, 6-1, 7-6. He stretched his win streak at Flushing Meadows to nine matches ahead of a potential banana peel against Dan Evans.

Dan Evans, for his part, came from a set down to beat Botic van de Zandschulp 1-6, 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 to reach the US Open third round for the third year in a row. Evans, who recently cracked the world’s Top 30 again after winning the biggest title of his career in Washington, has now won seven of his past nine matches ahead of his showdown against the tournament’s top seed. Evans was in good form in the previous round, serving brilliantly throughout the match after a first-set horror show. He won 80% of first-serve points and saved four of six break points on his own serve. The Briton also mixed it up, dashing to net 24 times in the match and winning points on 17 occasions. Overall, he’ll be pleased with his performance against a tricky opponent (even though the Dutchman was in terrible form coming to the event). He had a healthy return on the winners to unforced error count, 29 to 15.

Carlos Alcaraz has beaten Dan Evans in each of their previous two head-to-head meetings, including their clash this year in the Barcelona Open semifinals on clay. But generally, Evans performs at his best level on hard courts and he couldn’t have chosen a more opportune time to play Alcaraz. The Briton is in the form of his life after a sensational title win in Washington during the US swing. He’s the kind of player who can neutralize Alcaraz’s power with his wicked backhand slice. But the defending champion is packaged with the all-court game, not just his bruising power game, but wonderful court craft, and he’s also added the slice into his arsenal too. So Evans might just get a taste of his own medicine here.