Alcaraz Battles Through Tough Challenge at French Open

Alcaraz facing a tough challenge against determined qualifier Jesper de Jong managed to prevail reaching the French Open third round despite underwhelming performance. Despite his subdued performance, Alcaraz secured a 6-3 6-4 2-6 6-2 victory over De Jong, who is ranked 173 places below him. Carlos Alcaraz had to fight back from a break down twice in the fourth set to clinch the win. Reflecting on the match, Alcaraz acknowledged the difficulties he faced and praised De Jong for their competitive showdown. Alcaraz’s next opponent will be either Sebastian Korda from the United States or Kwon Soon-woo from South Korea.

Elsewhere, second seed Jannik Sinner and Andrey Rublev emerged victorious in their matches while persistent rain disrupted play on the outside courts. In the night session, Sinner triumphed over Richard Gasquet in straight sets on Court Phillipe Chatrier, whereas Stan Wawrinka suffered a defeat to Pavel Kotov on Court Suzanne Lenglen. Alcaraz’s performance in this match was in stark contrast to his dominant win in the first round against JJ Wolf. Alcaraz with a compression sleeve on his right forearm due to injury, struggled with form making many errors in the third set.

However, he managed to regain his focus and momentum in the fourth set, eventually pulling away to secure the victory. Alcaraz credited the support from the crowd for helping him bounce back after a challenging third set. In a separate match, Greek ninth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas overcame a third-set setback to defeat Daniel Altmaier, advancing to the next round. Tsitsipas, who has had a mixed start to the season expressed his appreciation for being able to discuss tennis with his mixed doubles partner, Paula Badosa. Russian sixth seed Andrey Rublev also secured a win while Lorenzo Sonego and Zhang Zhizhen await Tsitsipas in his next match.