French Open in tennis: Zverev after stuttering start in round three

After a slow start, Alexander Zverev confidently won his second-round match against 24-year-old Dutchman Jesper de Jong. Last year's finalist defeated the No. 88 seed 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-3, coming from a set down, and is among the last 32 players at Roland Garros for the eighth time in a row.

De Jong needed five sets in the first round of the French Open to prevail against the number 139, the Italian Francesco Passaro. He must have been surprised at how easy it was to take a 4-1 lead against the third-best player in the world, who initially made simple errors, and then win the first set. He provoked an early serve loss from Zverev with a long forehand return. Zverev barely managed to get a hold of the ball and smashed it into the net with his backhand. On set point, de Jong lured him to the net with a drop shot, trapping him.

In the second set, De Jong again earned two break points, but this time Zverev countered with his most effective weapon: the ace. He significantly reduced his own error rate and subsequently had both the match and his opponent firmly under control. "The first set certainly wasn't the best tennis ," Zverev admitted. He was very satisfied with the rest of his performance.

Zverev will face an Italian in the third round, either Matteo Arnaldi or Hamburg winner Flavio Cobolli. Since Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo, and Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov have already been eliminated from his quarter of the draw, he could face no other seeded player until the quarterfinals.

The second German professional in the men's competition, Daniel Altmaier, will play against the Serb Hamad Medjedovic for a place in the round of 16.