Jesper de Jong is through to the French Open fourth round after a brutal five-set win over Karen Khachanov that took almost five hours, and his reward is a meeting with Alexander Zverev on May 31 at 15:30 CEST. The Dutch player’s run has turned a qualifying-style breakthrough into a very real test against one of the tournament’s top names.
De Jong arrives with four wins from his last five matches, and the way he has built this run explains why his name is suddenly being searched at Roland Garros. He opened by beating Stan Wawrinka in four sets, then moved past Cina in straight sets before edging Khachanov in one of the longest matches of the round.
That is why the next step matters so much. Zverev was the finalist here in 2024, has won four of his last five matches, and has moved through the draw with straight-set wins over Bonzi and Machac before outlasting Halys in four sets. In the betting view around the tournament, he is the clear favourite and the biggest favourite to win the title, which sets up a sharp contrast with de Jong’s momentum.
There is also the history that sits behind the matchup. De Jong is 0-2 against Zverev, so this is not just a hot run meeting a higher seed; it is a player trying to turn form into something that has so far not translated in this head-to-head. A tournament note on De Jong Tennis frames the contest as Jesper de Jong meeting Zverev in the French Open fourth round, while another live listing, Servus Tv Live, carries the same match-up on the day.
For de Jong, the challenge is simple to say and hard to do: recover from almost five hours on court and find one more level against the man most expected to keep moving toward the title. If he cannot, the week still stands as the kind of run that changes how a draw looks to everyone else, including the player across the net.
