Carlos Alcaraz battled his way to a second-round victory over Jesper de Jong, a Dutch qualifier, in a match that made many wonder if he would be able to finish the French Open.
The world number 176 was defeated in four sets by the third-seeded Spanish player, the defending Wimbledon champion who has been dealing with a forearm injury for the past two months.
When Alcaraz broke in his maiden service game, the warning symptoms were there, even though he was wearing a support sleeve on his right arm.
Although he recovered the break quickly and won the first two sets, there was a noticeable lack of whip and force in his forehand.
Not that it was meant to diminish De Jong, who was physically straining but was playing far above his ranking.
Jack Draper of Britain might feel a bit better about his unexpected first-round loss to De Jong after the 23-year-old defeated Alcaraz twice to win the third set.
Even though he forced another early break of serve in the fourth set, De Jong was clearly exhausted.
Alcaraz crossed the finish line first, winning 6-3 6-4 2-6 6-2 in just over three hours, since he could not hold onto his own serve and committed too many double faults.
Alcaraz stated, “Every match is different, but I prefer not to spend too much time on the court. I want to be in good shape for the next round.”
“Learning the rhythm is beneficial to me, but I would rather play less hours on the court.
Jesper demonstrated that it is irrelevant to rank. He will undoubtedly break into the top 100.
In the third round, Alcaraz will square off against South Korean Kwon Soon-woo or American Sebastian Korda.
When the Paris rain started to fall again, Korda was leading 5–4 in the opening set. Eventually, play on the outdoor courts was called off for the day.
Stefanos Tsitsipas, a Greek who is ranked ninth, defeated Daniel Altmaier of Germany in the duel of the one-handed backhands, winning 6-3 6-2 6-7 (2) 6-4.