Jesper de Jong progressed to the second round of the French Open after a lengthy battle and impressive comeback against the Italian Francesco Passaro: 3-6, 6-7 (7), 6-4, 7-6 (1), 6-1.
De Jong, the number 88 of the ATP rankings, opened the match poorly as he gave away the first set in just 33 minutes. A double fault handed Passaro his first break of the game, and the Italian raced to a 4-0 lead.
A 25% score on second service points gave De Jong little chance of winning the set, as he conceded the first set 6-3.
The Dutchman came to live in the second set and fought an even battle against the Italian ATP number 139. The set reached a crucial twelfth game without having seen a single breakpoint, but Passaro dialled up the pressure and went up 40-0 in a must-win game at a score of 6-5. De Jong fought back in a tug of war, but his Italian counterpart forced a first tiebreak of the game.
A bad start saw De Jong quickly give up his first serve, but the 24-year-old recovered and got to set point at a score of 7-6. However, a tiebreak win wasn’t to be for the Dutchman, as Passaro outclassed De Jong in the latter stages of the tiebreak and went up 2-0 in sets.
Turnaround
De Jong finally broke Passaro for the first time since the first set, and a good third set resulted in his first set win of the day. The Dutchman barely set a foot wrong in his own service games, winning 21 of 27 points, en route to a 6-4 win.
A crucial fourth set started faultlessly from De Jong as he broke Passaro in the very first game on his second break point. De Jong cruised through the first four games and brought his service games home with consecutive love games.
Passaro realised the severity of the situation and put up a real fight again, fending off two break points from De Jong in the fifth game before breaking his Dutch opponent the very next game.
A second tiebreak was necessary after De Jong saved his match in the latter stages of the fourth set. The Dutchman overpowered Passaro in the tiebreak, breaking the Italian on every single service point and thus forcing a deciding fifth set.
Knock-out
De Jong continued his fine form in the fifth set and broke Passaro on his first service game, but the Italian immediately fought back with a rebreak. However, De Jong stayed in the fight and forced his third break point in the following game, one he cashed in on immediately and took an all-important 3-1 lead with.
The Dutchman continued cruising and seemed to have knocked his opponent out well before the final game as the Dutchman confidently decided the match with four consecutive game wins, including the last one on love.
An ecstatic De Jong won the match after three hours and 54 minutes and set up a meeting with Alexander Zverev in the second round of the French Open.
View all the match statistics on Flashscore.
