De Jong, the current number 83 in the world, had to qualify for his first performance in New York through the qualifying tournament. That was because he was at the moment that the registration for the Grandslam tournament in New York was outside the top 100 in the world.
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De Jong previously played on the Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon. He never got further than the second round.
How did the competition go?
Against the home -playing Nakashima, De Jong clearly had no problems with nerves in his debut. He started strongly in the first set and the Dutchman also played well in the second set, but Nakashima ran the score via a tiebreak. The American then played a convincing third set, but De Jong fought back in the game.
Then there were no breaks in the fifth set and so a match treak had to make the decision. It turned out that the American – who had not had three preliminary rounds – slightly sharper.