Today Hoofddorp's Jesper de Jong qualified for a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in his career. The 23-year-old tennis player won his third and final qualifying match and can prepare for his first appearance in the main draw of the Australian Open.
De Jong was stronger than his Argentine rival, Camilo Ugo Carabelli, in three sets. In the match, which lasted 3 hours and 21 minutes, the Hoofddorp player wasted a match point in the decisive tie-break. The second match point was a strike. They finished with a score of 7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 7-6 (10-7).
In the second set, De Jong dropped his serve game 3-4, allowing Ugo Carabelli to take the set. De Jong made up for it in the third and decisive set. Trailing 7-6 in the tiebreak, he won four points in a row and finished the match with a strong serve.
passionate
After his win, the Hoofddorp native lay on the track emotional. Then he got up and ran along the track and fell into the arms of his supervisor.
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Earlier, De Jong eliminated Italian Raul Brancaccio and Brazilian Felipe Meleghini Alves. With this victory, the Hoofddorp native became the fourth Dutch participant in this edition of the Australian Open. Botic van de Zandschulp, Tallon Greekpoor and Arantxa Rus have already been placed.
The main tournament begins on Sunday. In the first round of the Australian Open, De Jong, ranked 72nd in the world, will face Argentine Pedro Cachin. De Jong himself is ranked 135th in the ATP rankings.
