João Fonseca, from Rio de Janeiro and ranked 65th in the world, made his debut in style as a professional tennis player at Roland Garros (France), the second Grand Slam of the season. On Tuesday (27), he defeated Polish player Hubert Hurkacz (former top 10 player and currently ranked 28th), three sets to 0 (6/2 6/4 6/2), after 1h40min of play. With today’s triumph, the 18-year-old tennis player became the youngest Brazilian to win a match on the Parisian clay.
In the second round, Fonseca will face the host Pierre-Hugues Hebert (147th), aged 34. The match, scheduled for next Thursday (29), is already generating a buzz among tennis enthusiasts, who are eagerly awaiting the outcome.
The victory at Roland Garros is a testament to João Fonseca’s resilience, marking the end of a series of recent setbacks for the Rio native. In April, he was eliminated in the second round of the Masters 1000 in Madrid, Spain, and then lost in the opening round of the Challenger in Estoril, Portugal. This month, he was defeated in the second round of the Masters 1000 in Rome, Italy. However, he bounced back with a stunning victory in Paris.
Fonseca opened the season by winning three titles in a row: Challenger 125 in Canberra (Australia) in January; Challenger 175 in Phoenix (United States) in March; and the ATP 250, a prestigious tournament in Buenos Aires (Argentina), the most important in the young tennis player’s professional career.
Bia Haddad stops in her singles debut
Beatriz Haddad Maia from São Paulo, number 23 in the world, started by winning the first set of her debut against American Hailey Baptiste (70th in the ranking), 4/6, but then her opponent won in a comeback by two sets to 1 (4/6 6/3 6/1), eliminating Bia from the singles bracket, after 2h17min of play.
If Beatriz Haddad Maia was eliminated in a comeback in the first singles match at Roland Garros, the first match of the 29-year-old from São Paulo had a different outcome. The Brazilian returned to the court this Wednesday (28) for the first round of women’s doubles. Alongside German Laura Siegemund, they advanced to the second round by a score of 2 sets to 0 against French players Leolia Jeanjean and Jessika Ponchet. This performance made the Brazilian fans proud. The next opponents will come from the clash between the Japanese Shuko Aoyama and Moyuka Uchijima, and the Russian Polina Kudermetova and the Turkish Zeynep Sonmez.
Also on Wednesday, in the doubles, Luisa Stefani and the Hungarian Timea Babos made their debut with a victory on the clay courts of Paris. Just like the partnership formed by her compatriot, Stefani, 27, and her partner, who form the ninth best partnership in the world, also played a ‘bagel’, a term used in tennis to describe a set won without losing a game. Still, in the first set, while in the second, the Chinese Yifan Xu and the Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina managed to close only one game. In less than 50 minutes, they, who won the WTA 500 in Strasbourg last Saturday, confirmed their place in the next phase, where they will face the Czech Anastasia Detiuc and the Ukrainian Yuliia Starodubtseva.
Another Brazilian duo, ranked 20th on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) list, Rafael Matos and Marcelo Melo, known for their strong performances in doubles matches, were eliminated in 2 sets to 0 by the Monegasque Romain Arneodo and the French Manuel Guinard, with partial scores of 3/6 and 4/6.
Source: Agência Brasil