{"id":497897,"date":"2026-02-23T01:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T01:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/497897\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T01:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T01:56:08","slug":"home-hopes-joao-fonseca-marcelo-melo-clinch-rio-de-janeiro-title-atp-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/497897\/","title":{"rendered":"Home hopes Joao Fonseca\/Marcelo Melo clinch Rio de Janeiro title | ATP Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        Doubles<br \/>\n    Home hopes Fonseca\/Melo clinch Rio de Janeiro title<\/p>\n<p>Krajicek\/Mektic save 1 championship point to win Delray Beach title<\/p>\n<p>February 22, 2026<\/p>\n<p>MAURO PIMENTEL\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>        Brazilians Marcelo Melo and Joao Fonseca won the Rio de Janeiro crown on Sunday.<br \/>\n        By ATP Staff<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/joao-fonseca\/f0fv\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Joao Fonseca<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/marcelo-melo\/m919\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marcelo Melo<\/a> earned a storybook finish on Sunday when they claimed an ATP 500 title on home soil at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/tournaments\/rio-de-janeiro\/6932\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rio Open presented by Claro<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>The home favourites rallied past <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/constantin-frantzen\/f09r\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Constantin Frantzen<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/robin-haase\/h756\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Robin Haase<\/a> 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 to clinch the trophy on their team debut in Rio de Janeiro. With the victory, 19-year-old Fonseca became the youngest doubles champion at an ATP 500 event since the series was introduced in 2009, while 42-year-old Melo clinched his 41st tour-level title.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It means a lot,&#8221; Fonseca said. &#8220;Sharing the court with Marcelo, what a pleasure, and it was a special week.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Buoyed by a raucous home crowd with ATP No. 1 Club member <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/andre-agassi\/a092\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Andre Agassi<\/a> in attendance, Fonseca and Melo faced an early setback when they lost the first set, but bounced back to ultimately secure the victory in one hour and 34 minutes. The Brazilians won 68 per cent (28\/41) of their first-serve points according to Infosys ATP Stats. En route to the final, the champions saved one match point against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/jakob-schnaitter\/sy05\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jakob Schnaitter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/mark-wallner\/w0e2\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mark Wallner<\/a> in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To be two Brazilians here in Rio and Joao is from here, makes it even more special,&#8221; added Melo, who also won the title in 2025 alongside <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/rafael-matos\/mo41\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rafael Matos<\/a>. &#8220;Since the first match we said it was a special week for us, a special opportunity and we are very happy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/news\/atp-number-one-club\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768144283_348_atp-no-1-club-banner-article.jpg\" alt=\"\u201cATP\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Krajicek\/Mektic clinch Delray Beach title<\/p>\n<p> Second seeds <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/austin-krajicek\/ka00\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Austin Krajicek<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/nikola-mektic\/mf09\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nikola Mektic<\/a> clinched their first title as a team at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/tournaments\/delray-beach\/499\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Delray Beach Open<\/a> on Sunday by defeating <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/benjamin-kittay\/k0hs\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Benjamin Kittay<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/ryan-seggerman\/s0dl\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ryan Seggerman<\/a> 6-7(3), 6-3, 11-9. The Croatian-American duo crucially saved a championship point at 8\/9 in the Match Tie-break before sealing the win in one hour and 40 minutes. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The end was nerve-wracking but a great win for us,&#8221; Mektic said, who earned his 33rd tour-level title with the triumph.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"&lt;a href=\" https:=\"\"\/>Austin Krajicek and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/nikola-mektic\/mf09\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nikola Mektic<\/a> won the Delray Beach doubles title on Sunday.&#8221; style=&#8221;width:100%;&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/-\/media\/images\/news\/2026\/02\/22\/23\/07\/krajicek-mektic-delray-beach-2026-final.jpg&#8221;&gt;<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/austin-krajicek\/ka00\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Austin Krajicek<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/nikola-mektic\/mf09\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nikola Mektic<\/a> won the Delray Beach doubles title Sunday. Photo: Megan Briggs\/Getty Images.<\/p>\n<p>In their maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head clash with the Americans, Krajicek and Mektic won 70 per cent (45\/57) of their first-serve points and saved the only break point they faced. The team is currently ranked 21st in the PIF ATP Doubles Teams Rankings. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Any time you can string some wins together in a row, it&#8217;s a huge boost for us,&#8221; Krajicek added.  &#8220;We&#8217;ll lean into that momentum, and we have the tournament in Acapulco, so we&#8217;ll try to continue working hard there and put our best game forward.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doubles Home hopes Fonseca\/Melo clinch Rio de Janeiro title Krajicek\/Mektic save 1 championship point to win Delray Beach&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-497897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}