Indian Wells
\n Fonseca saves 2 MPs amid electric Indian Wells atmosphere<\/p>\n
Brazilian downs 16th seed Khachanov, next faces Paul<\/p>\n
March 07, 2026<\/p>\n
ATP Tour<\/p>\n
Joao Fonseca is the second-youngest man to reach the Indian Wells third round this decade, only behind Carlos Alcaraz.
\n By Grant Thompson<\/p>\n
Joao Fonseca<\/a> earned a memorable win Saturday at the BNP Paribas Open<\/a>, where he saved two match points to down 16th seed Karen Khachanov<\/a> 4-6, 7-6(7), 6-4.<\/p>\n \nIn front of an electric Stadium 3 crowd, full of Brazilian supporters bursting into song that resembled a football match, Fonseca displayed his shotmaking ability and fighting spirit to stay alive in Indian Wells. The 19-year-old is the second-youngest man to reach the Indian Wells third round this decade, only behind an 18-year-old Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> in 2022.<\/p>\n \u201cThose are the victories we work for, saving a match point,\u201d Fonseca said in his on-court interview. \u201cThe first months of the year were a little tough, getting the rhythm and getting back from injury. [Today was] a great match against a great player. I\u2019m very happy with the way that I fought. I know how experienced he is and after a tough second set, I got an early break in the third. This victory means a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n Facing two consecutive match points at 4\/6 in the second-set tie-break, Fonseca saved the first by blasting a forehand second-serve return, which drew a backhand error from Khachanov. Fonseca then served at 5\/6, nailing an Ad-side ace down the T.<\/p>\n \u201cI made a good return and then after I served well, so I started believing,” Fonseca said. “I\u2019m just very happy with the way that I fought. The third set I played really well, so I\u2019m very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n Fonseca rode his momentum from there, earning a double-break lead in the early stages of the decider. Behind his 32 winners, Fonseca eventually avenged his 2025 Rolex Paris Masters<\/a> loss to Khachanov, improving to 1-1 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series. The Brazilian will next look to earn similar revenge on\u00a0American Tommy Paul<\/a>, who beat the teenager in Madrid last year.<\/p>\n The No. 35 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, Fonseca arrived in California with a 1-3 season record, according to the Infosys ATP Win\/Loss Index. His victory against Khachanov marks his sixth Top 20 win of his young career.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indian Wells Fonseca saves 2 MPs amid electric Indian Wells atmosphere Brazilian downs 16th seed Khachanov, next faces…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-525721","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\/525721","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=525721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}