Carlos Alcaraz continues on his crusade to add a third Grand Slam to his trophy cabinet, after reaching the third round of the French Open in a difficult tie against qualifier Jesper De Jong.
The 21-year-old has already reigned on the concrete at the US Open 2022 and beat Novak Djokovic on the grass at Wimbledon 2023.
He is currently on track to win a Major every season at such a young age, and he did his chances no harm after seeing off the spirited Dutchman De Jong on Court Philippe Chatrier in Paris, winning 6-3, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2, in three hours and nine minutes.
The Spaniard has never failed to reach the third round of the French Open since his first appearance in the draw in 2021 and continued that run, despite dropping a set.
De Jong came out emboldened by four wins in the tournament, three of them in qualifying and the last one in five sets with Jack Draper. It was his first appearance in the main draw of the French Open, but he was by no means daunted in facing Alcaraz.
An unexpected threat
Alcaraz had not lost to a player with a ranking as low as the Dutchman’s (176) since he bowed out to Austrian Alexander Erler (337) in the Kitzbühel opener in 2021. But the risk was there when De Jong went 2-0 up at the start.
Alcaraz neutralised that lead without breaking a sweat and they stayed on serve until the seventh game. It was then that the player from Spain pulled off some trademark groundstrokes to steal ahead.
In the second set, Alcaraz missed chances to sneak break points, winning only three out of 12. De Jong had his moment at 4-4 and 30-40, but missed his chance to secure the all-important break and Alcaraz made him pay with his fourth break point.
When it seemed that the match was settled, the Dutchman found another gear and broke the 2023 semi-finalist twice in a row to take a first set off the Spaniard in the tournament.
The fourth set started with a dangerous break against Alcaraz, but he reacted to equalise at 1-1. De Jong repeatedly asked for the physiotherapist’s presence to treat cramp and even when the two-time Major winner suffered on his serve, he managed to find a way.
At the same time as the Spaniard finally saw off De Jong, Sebastian Korda – his expected opponent in the third round – was still stuck at 5-4 in the first set of his duel with the South Korean Kwon Soo-woo as a result of the rain.