Carlos Alcaraz thinking "about the positive things" while building up at Roland Garros

On Wednesday, Carlos Alcaraz appeared to be on his way towards a straight-set victory. But after two and half hours, the scoreboard inside a closed Court Philippe Chatrier told a different story when he found himself down a break in the fourth set to qualifier Jasper de Jong.

His unforced error count had notably started trending in the wrong direction. Needing to find a spark somewhere, Alcaraz brought more “Vamos!” reactions to the fold. In channeling his emotions towards the quality work he was producing on his side of the net, Alcaraz reeled off the final five games to finish off de Jong, 6-3, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2.

“It was up and down in the match. I think I played good tennis the first and second sets, and then I was struggling a little bit,” the No. 3 seed told press afterwards.

Alcaraz shared with Tennis Channel’s Jon Wertheim during their on-court interview that he has “to think about the positive things,” alluding to the fact he arrived to the Paris major without the clay-court buildup he’s grown accustomed to,

Coming in with question marks about his ongoing right forearm injury, the 21-year-old sprayed 28 unforced errors on his forehand, but negated those missteps with 28 winners from that wing.

The Spaniard admitted he played with “less energy” on his break point chances than necessary, though also felt de Jong produced the shots to “deserve” wiping them away. While Alcaraz hadn’t trained with the Dutchman before, he was up to speed on the de Jong’s ATP Challenger successes and believes the 23-year-old has more to give.

“This tournament he impressed me,” stated Alcaraz. “If he continues this level, I think he's going to be Top 100 soon.”

The two-time major winner has now played six matches on red dirt this spring going into the third round, a stage he's reached at his last 10 Slams. Alcaraz notched his 20th win of the season from 25 matches played.