Carlos Alcaraz continues on his campaign so as to add a 3rd Grand Slam to his trophy cupboard, after reaching the third spherical of the French Open in a troublesome tie in opposition to qualifier Jesper De Jong.
The 21-year-old has already reigned on the concrete on the US Open 2022 and beat Novak Djokovic on the grass at Wimbledon 2023.
He’s at the moment on monitor to win a Main each season at such a younger age, and he did his probabilities no hurt after seeing off the spirited Dutchman De Jong on Court docket Philippe Chatrier in Paris, successful 6-3, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2, in three hours and 9 minutes.
The Spaniard has by no means failed to succeed in the third spherical of the French Open since his first look within the attract 2021 and continued that run, regardless of dropping a set.
De Jong got here out emboldened by 4 wins within the event, three of them in qualifying and the final one in 5 units with Jack Draper. It was his first look in the primary draw of the French Open, however he was on no account daunted in dealing with Alcaraz.
An sudden menace
Alcaraz had not misplaced to a participant with a rating as little as the Dutchman’s (176) since he bowed out to Austrian Alexander Erler (337) within the Kitzbhel opener in 2021. However the threat was there when De Jong went 2-0 up firstly.
Alcaraz neutralised that lead with out breaking a sweat and so they stayed on serve till the seventh recreation. It was then that the participant from Spain pulled off some trademark groundstrokes to steal forward.
Within the second set, Alcaraz missed probabilities to sneak break factors, successful solely three out of 12. De Jong had his second at 4-4 and 30-40, however missed his probability to safe the all-important break and Alcaraz made him pay together with his fourth break level.
When it appeared that the match was settled, the Dutchman discovered one other gear and broke the 2023 semi-finalist twice in a row to take a primary set off the Spaniard within the event.
The fourth set began with a harmful break in opposition to Alcaraz, however he reacted to equalise at 1-1. De Jong repeatedly requested for the physiotherapist’s presence to deal with cramp and even when the two-time Main winner suffered on his serve, he managed to discover a method.
Concurrently the Spaniard lastly noticed off De Jong, Sebastian Korda – his anticipated opponent within the third spherical – was nonetheless caught at 5-4 within the first set of his duel with the South Korean Kwon Soo-woo because of the rain.
