De Jong eliminated in preliminaries Roland Garros, Pattinama-Kerkhove | Sports Other

May 24, 2023 at 12:04 Update: 6 minutes ago

Jesper de Jong dealt with Slovak Norbert Gombos (6-3, 7-5) on Wednesday and is therefore one game away from participating in Roland Garros. Lesley Pattinama-Kerkhove was eliminated in the preliminary rounds by the Russian Elina Avanesyan (6-3, 4-6, 6-3).

The 22-year-old De Jong started his match badly and immediately lost his service. The number 195 in the world recovered and served the first set with a 5-3 score.

In the second set it went on for a long time, but De Jong had the best final shot. After an hour and 45 minutes of play, he used his first match point. The Dutchman still has to win one match to qualify for the main tournament in Paris.

Earlier in the day, Pattinama-Kerkhove came into action. In the first two sets she could still keep up with the level of Avanesyan, the number 134 in the world. The Dutch, who is 73 places lower in the world ranking, still had to drop out in the third set. Her opponent quickly ran to 4-0 and easily finished the game: 6-3, 4-6 and 6-3.

Due to the loss, 31-year-old Pattinama-Kerkhove also failed to reach the Roland Garros main draw on her seventh attempt. The Zeelander has already played a Grand Slam four times, including three times at Wimbledon.

Arantxa Rus still has a chance to participate in Roland Garros

After the elimination of Pattinama-Kerkhove, Arantxa Rus is the only Dutch woman who still has a chance to participate in Roland Garros. The number 87 in the world ranking will face the Czech Barbora Palicová (WTA-210) in the second qualifying round later on Wednesday.

With a victory over Palicová, Rus has to survive one more qualifying round. The 32-year-old Russian was automatically placed for the Grand Slams for a long time on the basis of her place in the world rankings. But because she dropped in the world rankings, she now also has to play qualifications.

With the men, Botic van de Zandschulp and Tallon Grecour, who is ailing with an ankle injury, are already certain of a place in the main schedule.

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