Joao Fonseca, a rising 19-year-old star, showed Tuesday he belongs on tennis’ biggest stages, even though he fell short.
The young Brazilian battled second-seeded Jannik Sinner of Italy in the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., before losing 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4).
In the first-ever matchup between the players, Fonseca squandered three set points in the first-set tiebreaker, with Sinner escaping a 6-3 hole to prevail 8-6.
Sinner went up 5-2 in the second set but failed to seal the victory, with Fonseca breaking serve at love to get to 4-5 before forcing another tiebreaker. Sinner eventually took the last four points to advance to the quarterfinals.
Asked about the ceiling for Fonseca, who is ranked 35th in the world after winning two tournaments last year, Sinner said, “I cannot predict the future. I don’t know. I do believe he’s a very, very high-quality player.
“We all saw this. Now I have finally played against him, and I’m very sure he’s going to do some great things in the future. But, you know, there is a lot of work, as I put in, as we all put in. You know, things can change. He has everything what’s needed, yeah, to be an incredible player, which he is already but even more so. I wish him only the best.”
Fonseca said of the setback, “As a tennis player, I can say that when we lose, we kind of feel sad or disappointed sometime, trying to figure out what I did right, what I did wrong. But of course I’m happy the way that I played.
“For myself, I don’t normally think that I need to be mad at myself when I played good, when I did everything good, and the opponent has the credit. … I mean, I’m happy the way that I played, like I said, but of course there are some things to work on.”
Sinner finished with more winners (37-27) and fewer unforced errors (24-21) than Fonseca.
“Those little details (are) just super important, like when he played the important points, like how he deals with it,” Fonseca said. “So of course a lot of experience, I still need it, but I think the level is still there. … I mean, of course (I have) more things to improve, but I feel happy the way that I played, because I felt the level was pretty close today.”
Sinner’s quarterfinal opponent will be 25th-seeded Learner Tien of the United States, who rallied past 18th-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4).
“Super-tough match,” Tien said. “Didn’t really feel super great coming out. Honestly, I felt like my energy levels were a bit low, but thought I was doing a great job just staying around and then picking it up in the third, and just happy to get through.”
Another quarterfinal match will feature fourth-seeded German Alexander Zverev and 30th-seeded Frenchman Arthur Fils.
Zverev downed 21st-seeded Frances Tiafoe of the United States 6-3, 6-4, and Fils topped ninth-seeded Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-3, 7-6 (9). Auger-Aliassime squandered five set points in the second-set tiebreaker.
–Field Level Media
