Jesper de Jong, a 23-year-old Dutchman from Haarlem, has never skipped the second round at a Grand Slam in his career - he didn't make it even today, but he "tortured" one of the favorites a lot...
Carlos Alkaras did not shine, but he managed to "break" the persistent Dutchman - 6:3, 6:4, 2:6, 6:2.
"In tournaments like this, any player can give you a problem - it doesn't matter if you're playing against someone from the top or a player who isn't in the Top 100, you just have to play at your best level to get through. Jesper showed that the current position doesn't say much about tennis player," said Alkaras after the match.
Although he lost a break at the start of the match, it seemed that the Spanish tennis player would easily bring the match to an end when the scoreboard under the roof of "Filip Shatrije" showed 2:0 in sets for him, but...
De Jong "flew" in the third set, which he won 6:2, so that both tennis players opened the fourth with two breaks each...
In those moments, the Dutch tennis player complained about his injury, painful grimaces were visible on his face during the points, but he did not give up...
However, he was running out of strength, he made mistakes more and more often, and Alkaras doesn't forgive all that.. He made a new break in the sixth game of the fourth set, another one by the end and he could finally breathe a sigh of relief and celebrate his place in the next round.
In the third round, Alkaras will play against the better of the duel Sebasti Cord - Kwon Sun-Woo.
Due to the rain in Paris, the game is only played on pitches with a movable roof, so in addition to the Alkaras - De Jong match, only two more were played - Stefanos Tsicipa won 3:1 over Daniel Altmaier, while Andrej Rubljov had no problem against Pedro Martinez (6: 3, 6:4, 6:3).
Bonus video:
