Carlos Alcaraz has fond memories of Flushing, of winning the U.S. Open at the age of 19 in 2022 and reaching the semifinals the following summer.

The moment that remains most vivid in his memory is not a pleasant one. It’s from last August when he arrived in Queens fresh off winning titles at the French Open and Wimbledon.

He barely had a chance to settle in before unexpectedly losing in the second round to Botic van de Zandschulp, an unseeded Dutch player who was ranked 74th in the world at the time.

“Honestly, I remembered last year as I stepped onto the court,” Alcaraz shared on Wednesday night. “I had some negative thoughts. I was anxious about repeating my past mistake, thinking, ‘I don’t want to lose in the second round again.’”

Early on in his match against unseeded Italian Mattia Bellucci, it was clear the second-seeded Alcaraz wasn’t in danger of another second-round exit.

He won the match’s first five games, dropped just one in the first two sets and cruised to a 6-1, 6-0, 6-3 victory at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

In two matches, Alcaraz has yet to lose his serve, looking every bit like a favorite in this tournament, along with top seed Jannik Sinner.

“I played great from the beginning to the last ball,” Alcaraz said in his on-court interview. “I know Mattia’s level and today wasn’t his day, but I tried to make the most of his mistakes, trying to be in the match getting a good rhythm.

“I think a few things have to improve that I didn’t feel as good as I wanted, but in general I’m really happy with the performance today.”

Alcaraz advanced to meet No. 32-seed Luciano Darderi, a 6-0, 7-6, 2-6, 6-4 winner over American Eliot Spizzirri, on Friday.

Alcaraz wanted to be clear that he still cherishes his 2022 Open championship — it was the first Grand Slam he ever won, making him the youngest man to ever win this tournament.

Great athletes have often talked about losses fueling them more than victories.

That appears to be the case for Alcaraz when it comes to his early exit at the U.S. Open last year.

“It’s more recent, and I just don’t want to do the same things that I did last year,” he said. “So I just want to improve, and I think people in general or myself have the negative thoughts [stick with them more] the positive, or the negative thoughts have more power than the positive thoughts, positive things.

“I think that’s normal. I’m trying not to let them stick in my mind so many times or [spend] so much time on it, but sometimes it happens like this.”