Rio native João Fonseca, world No. 65, made a stellar professional debut at Roland Garros (France), the second Grand Slam of the season. On Tuesday (27), he crushed Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz (former top 10 and current No. 28 in the rankings) 3-0 (6/2, 6/4, 6/2) after 1h40min of play. With today’s win, the 18-year-old became the youngest Brazilian to win a match on the Parisian clay.
In the second round, Fonseca will face host Pierre-Hugues Herbert (No. 147), aged 34. The match is set for next Thursday (29), at a time to be determined by the organizers.
The Roland Garros victory halts a recent string of stumbles for the Rio native. In April, he exited in the second round of the Madrid Masters 1000 (Spain) and was then knocked out in the first round of the Estoril Challenger (Portugal); this month, he bowed out in the second round of the Rome Masters 1000 (Italy).
Fonseca kicked off the season by winning three straight titles: the Canberra Challenger 125 (Australia) in January; the Phoenix Challenger 175 (United States) in March; and the Buenos Aires ATP 250 (Argentina), the most significant of his professional career to date.
Bia Haddad Falls in Singles Debut
São Paulo native Beatriz Haddad Maia, world No. 23, dropped the first set 4-6 to American Hailey Baptiste (No. 70 in the rankings) in her debut, but the opponent staged a comeback to win 2-1 (4/6, 6/3, 6/1), eliminating Bia from the singles draw after 2h17min of battle.
While Beatriz Haddad Maia was ousted on a comeback in her first singles match at Roland Garros, her first doubles match had a different outcome. The 29-year-old São Paulo native returned to the court on Wednesday (28) for the women’s doubles first round. Alongside Germany’s Laura Siegemund, they advanced to the second round with a 2-0 win over French players Leolia Jeanjean and Jessika Ponchet. Their next opponents will emerge from the clash between Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Moyuka Uchijima, and Russia’s Polina Kudermetova and Turkey’s Zeynep Sonmez.
Also on Wednesday in doubles, Luisa Stefani and Hungary’s Timea Babos debuted with a win on the Paris clay. Much like her compatriot’s pairing, 27-year-old Stefani and her partner—the ninth-ranked team in the world—also dished out a bagel in the first set, while in the second, China’s Yifan Xu and Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina managed just one game. In under 50 minutes, they—fresh off a win at the Strasbourg WTA 500 last Saturday—secured their place in the next round, where they will face Czech Anastasia Detiuc and Ukraine’s Yuliia Starodubtseva.
Another Brazilian duo, ranked No. 20 on the ATP list, Rafael Matos and Marcelo Melo, were eliminated 2-0 by Monegasque Romain Arneodo and Frenchman Manuel Guinard (6/3, 6/4).
Source: Agência Brasil