The Spanish third seed and reigning Wimbledon champion, who has been battling a forearm injury for two months, needed four sets to see off the world number 176.

The warning signs were there when Alcaraz, once again wearing a support sleeve on his right arm, was broken in his first service game.

He quickly recovered that break and took the first two sets, but the forehand was definitely lacking its usual whip and power.

That was to take nothing away from De Jong, who was playing well above his ranking despite struggling physically himself.

Indeed, Britain's Jack Draper may feel a little better about his surprise defeat to De Jong in the first round after the 23-year-old broke Alcaraz twice on the way to taking the third set.

But De Jong was visibly tiring in the fourth set despite forcing another early break of serve.

He was unable to hold on to his own serve, sprinkling in too many double faults as Alcaraz got over the line 6-3 6-4 2-6 6-2 in just over three hours.

"I prefer not to spend too much time on the court, I want to be in good shape for the next round but every match is different," Alcaraz said.

"It's good for me to get the rhythm, but I prefer to spend less hours on court.

"Jesper showed that the ranking doesn't matter. I'm sure that he is going to break the top 100."

Alcaraz will face either American Sebastian Korda or South Korean Kwon Soon-woo in the third round.

Korda was 5-4 up in the first set when the Paris rain once again began to fall, and play on the outside courts was eventually suspended for the day.

Earlier, Greek ninth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas won the battle of the one-handed backhands, beating Germany's Daniel Altmaier 6-3 6-2 6-7 (2) 6-4.

READ MORE: Novak Djokovic gets French Open defence underway with straight set win

Local Start Time Venue	08 Jun at 02:15 PM
Local Time	08 Jun at 12:15 PM
Toss	Norway won the toss and chose to batting
Country	Europe
City	Prague
Venue	Scott Page Field
Established	0000
Result	Norway won by 37 runs

Finished Central Europe Cup