Jesper de Jong from Hoofddorp today 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 debut in the main draw of the Australian Open.
De Jong was too strong for his competitor, the Argentinian Camilo Ugo Carabelli, in three sets. In the 3 hour and 21 minute match, the Hoofddorp player missed a match point in the decisive tiebreak. The second match point was a hit. They finished with the score 7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 7-6 (10-7).
In the second set, De Jong lost his own service game at 3-4, allowing Ugo Carabelli to walk away with this set. De Jong made up for this in the third and decisive set. With a 6-7 deficit in the tiebreak, he won four points in a row and finished it off with a strong serve.
Emotional
After his win, the Hoofddorp native lay down on the track emotional. Then he got up, ran along the track and fell into the arms of his supervisor.
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Earlier, de Jong eliminated the Italian Raul Brancaccio and the Brazilian Felipe Meligeni Alves. With his win, the Hoofddorp native is the fourth Dutch participant in this edition of the Australian Open. Botic van de Zandschulp, Tallon Greekpoor and Arantxa Rus had already been placed.
The main tournament starts on Sunday. In the first round of the Australian Open, De Jong will face number 72 in the world, the Argentinian Pedro Cachín. De Jong himself occupies place 135 in the ATP rankings.