This Sunday, March 12, Jesper de Jong was crowned singles champion at The Campus Open, the USD 25.000 international men's tournament that took place for the sixth time with the support of the Quinta do Lago Resort and the Portuguese Tennis Federation.
number 294 of ranking ATP (he was 160th in June 2022), Jesper de Jong prevailed over the Japanese Naoki Nakagawa (455th) in three matches, with the partials of 6-1, 5-7 and 6-4, after 2h13.
Divided into three "acts", this Sunday's final began with De Jong taking advantage of a good service stroke to, in a flash, gain an advantage against an opponent who entered with little concentration. But then Nakagawa — who the day before removed the Portuguese Henrique Rocha — reacted, prolonged the exchanges of balls and with increased consistency from the bottom line entered the title discussion.
From the moment the Japanese man started to offer a reply, the final became balanced and both the second and third matches were resolved with breaks of service in the final straight: in the second, de Jong accused the pressure when he served to guarantee a tie-breaker; in the third, a nervous tackle by Nakagawa to make it 4-4 gave the opposition the opportunity they needed to complete the victory.
“It's a great feeling. I went through a difficult period, so it's great to win a title again. This week I didn't play my best tennis, so I leave here even more confident and I hope to continue to evolve", said Jesper de Jong after stamping the fifth victory in a week that he described as "unorthodox" for the gymnastics that was necessary in order to amortize the delays caused by rain in the first days.
“My goal is to enter the qualifying of a Grand Slam tournament or Roland-Garros or Wimbledon. I've been working hard to get my ranking, so I'm happy to see that it's working”, concluded the 22-year-old tennis player.
After Jesper de Jong's celebration, there was still time for another celebration by players from the Netherlands, as Mats Hermans and Mick Veldheer won the title in pairs: the two Dutchmen won the final against Chile's Diego Fernandez Flores and Spain's Adria Soriano Barrero (who in the early afternoon knocked out the Portuguese Jaime Faria and Duarte Vale in the semi-finals) in two matches, by 6-4 and 6-3.
In the end, Roque Rocha, the tournament director, made a positive assessment of the sixth edition of The Campus Open: «At the beginning it was quite complicated because we had three or four days in which it was difficult to play due to the rain, but we made an effort and also we have to thank Vilamoura Tennis & Padel Academy because we were able to use some courts. In the end we managed to take the tournament forward and we finished well, with a great final between two excellent players».
The Campus Open will return in 2024, but in October there will be the second edition of The Campus Ladies Open.
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