Roland-Garros: Alcaraz taken to four sets by De Jong before reaching third round

Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz, the No 3 seed, reached the third round of Roland-Garros but not before being extended to four sets by Dutch qualifier Jesper De Jong on Court Philippe Chatrier on a rainy Wednesday that forced the roof to close and play on outer courts to be cancelled.

After winning the first two sets, Alcaraz, whose clay court season leading into this tournament, lost the third set 6-2 before the Spaniard rebounded and won the fourth set by the same scoreline to complete the 6-3, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 in three hours and nine minutes.

“I think he started to play better in the third set,” Alcaraz assessed. “It was up and down in the match. I think I played good tennis the first and second sets, and then I was struggling a little bit.

“I think he increased his tennis. The speed of his ball, it was higher, I think. Yeah, he didn’t let me to get into the rhythm of the match. I think he dominated most of the points in the third set and I was struggling to get to my good tennis or the tennis that I was playing in the first and the second set.

“Then in the fourth set I had to fight. I got to overcome the problems that I had most of the time with my serve. But (I’m) really happy that I could get the win in a good way at the end.”

Alcaraz, ranked No 3 in the world and the reigning Wimbledon champion, will face the winner of the match between American Sebastian Korda, the No 27 seed, and Soonwoo Kwon next.

The 21-year-old Spaniard beat J.J. Wolf (LL) (6-1, 6-2, 6-1) in the previous round.

In the first round De Jong, ranked No 176, defeated Jack Draper (7-5, 6-4, 6-7 (3), 3-6, 6-3).

Paris (Grand Slam), other second-round matches (Roland-Garros, clay, EUR 53,478,000):

• Miomir Kecmanovic vs. Daniil Medvedev
• Mariano Navone vs. Tomas Machac
• Jan-Lennard Struff vs. Alexander Bublik
• Alex De Minaur vs. Jaume Munar
• Flavio Cobolli vs. Holger Rune
• Karen Khachanov vs. Jozef Kovalik
• Luciano Darderi vs. Tallon Griekspoor
• Alexander Zverev vs. David Goffin
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vs. Casper Ruud
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs. Arthur Rinderknech
• Thanasi Kokkinakis vs. Giulio Zeppieri
• Taylor Fritz vs. Dusan Lajovic
• Fabio Fognini vs. Tommy Paul
• Francisco Cerundolo vs. Filip Misolic
• Gael Monfils vs. Lorenzo Musetti
• Novak Djokovic vs. Roberto Carballes Baena
• Richard Gasquet vs. Jannik Sinner
• Pavel Kotov vs. Stan Wawrinka
• Corentin Moutet vs. Alexander Shevchenko
• Sebastian Ofner vs. Sebastian Baez
• Fabian Marozsan vs. Grigor Dimitrov
• Zizou Bergs vs. Maximilian Marterer
• Denis Shapovalov vs. Frances Tiafoe
• Henri Squire vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime
• Andrey Rublev vs. Pedro Martinez: wednesday
• Ben Shelton vs. Kei Nishikori
• Hubert Hurkacz vs. Brandon Nakashima
• Sebastian Korda vs. SoonWoo Kwon
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (9) beat Daniel Altmaier: 6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (2), 6-4
• Lorenzo Sonego vs. Zhizhen Zhang
• Alexandre Muller vs. Matteo Arnaldi