Zverev cruises past De Jong to reach his sixth Roland-Garros quarter-final
Alexander Zverev (No 2) beat Jesper de Jong 7-6(3), 6-4, 6-1 on Court Suzanne-Lenglen — his sixth consecutive Roland-Garros quarter-final, his 17th Grand Slam QF in his career. De Jong led 3-0 in the first set and 3-0 in the tie-break before Zverev took the breaker 7-3 and the contest ran his way from there. With Sinner, Djoković and Alcaraz all out, the German is the heavy favourite to reach the final from his half. Rafael Jodar, the 19-year-old Spaniard, awaits in the last eight.
Alexander Zverev, Roland-Garros 2026 | © M. Baucher / PsNewz
Alexander Zverev, the second seed, beat Dutch lucky loser Jesper de Jong 7-6(3), 6-4, 6-1 on Court Philippe-Chatrier on Sunday afternoon to reach the quarter-finals of Roland-Garros for the sixth consecutive year and the eighth time in his career. It was his 17th Grand Slam quarter-final overall.
De Jong, the world No. 106 who had reached the round of 16 by beating 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka, Italian qualifier Federico Cinà and 13th seed Karen Khachanov in five sets, made his presence felt for stretches. He led 3-0 in the opening set, and 3-0 in the first-set tie-break, before Zverev’s serve found its range and his return took over.
The German took the breaker 7-3, broke once in the second set to lead 5-4 – De Jong held on to that point but no longer after – and ran the third set 6-1 in 28 minutes.
“Good match”, Zverev stated in the press conference. “After 0-3, I found my rhythm. It was a very solid match. In best-of-five, you’re not going to win every set cleanly. There’s always going to be a situation somewhere where you have problems and you have to solve them. I handled the situations well the first week, even when I was losing a set. Today I was down a break early on. Came back and played well.”
Zverev – Jodar, heavyweight quarter final
The win, in a contest that was over as a competitive proposition by the second-set break point, lets Zverev being the favourite to reach the final from his half. With Jannik Sinner gone after the second-round upset to Juan Manuel Cerundolo, Novak Djokovic out after his five-set loss to João Fonseca in the third round, and Carlos Alcaraz absent through injury before the tournament began, the second seed sits as the only top-three player still in the men’s draw.
He will face Rafael Jodar, the 19-year-old 27th seed who beat Pablo Carreño Busta from two sets down earlier on Sunday, in the quarter-finals.
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