{"id":707753,"date":"2026-06-01T06:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T06:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/707753\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T06:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T06:50:11","slug":"french-open-news-2026-joao-fonseca-defeats-casper-ruud-as-jim-courier-slams-controversial-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/707753\/","title":{"rendered":"French Open News 2026: Joao Fonseca defeats Casper Ruud as Jim Courier slams controversial call"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brazilian No.28 seed Joao Fonseca has advanced to the quarter-finals of the French Open<\/a>, but a controversial moment in the second set will have Casper Ruud<\/a> wondering what might have been.<\/p>\n

Leading 8-7 in the tiebreaker and on set point, a Fonseca forehand appeared to go long, with a member of the crowd yelling \u201cout\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A frustrated Casper Ruud.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Hawk-Eye would back up that assessment, showing the ball went long by the smallest of margins. <\/p>\n

However, the chair umpire ran over to the spot and overruled Hawk-Eye, deciding that it had caught the back of the line and was in. Had Ruud won that point, he would\u2019ve claimed the second set.<\/p>\n

Instead, he ultimately lost to the 19-year-old 5-7, 6-7(10), 7-5, 2-6 and will miss out on a grand slam quarter-final slot in a wide open draw missing Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Commentator Jim Courier did not hold back in his assessment of the situation, saying \u201cin any other tournament these guys played in all year long, that ball is out and the set is over\u201d.<\/p>\n

Roland Garros is the only major tournament on the circuit that has not yet adopted the ball-tracking technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying electronic line calling is perfect, but it makes far fewer mistakes than humans. Matches should be decided by the players, not by people, not in 2026,\u201d Courier added. <\/p>\n

Australian four-time grand slam doubles champion and former Australian Open tournament director Paul McNamee, however, took to social media to disagree with Courier\u2019s assessment.<\/p>\n

\"Joao<\/p>\n

Joao Fonseca celebrates defeating Casper Ruud.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave Jim his first gig as a commentator at the Australian Open. He\u2019s top shelf, but in this case I disagree with him. Technology is not perfect either, so may the authenticity of ball marks prevail\u2026on clay, at Roland Garros, tennis is gladiatorial uniquely with human arbiters,\u201d McNamee wrote. <\/p>\n

Regardless of the second set, Fonseca managed to break Ruud in the first set to get an early advantage, and overpowered him in the fourth to stamp out any chance of a comeback. <\/p>\n

Earlier on Monday, Czech Jakub Mensik stormed into the quarter-finals, knocking out No.11 seed Andrey Rublev.<\/p>\n

After taking the first two sets, the No.26 seed appeared to lose all momentum, dropping the next two before rebounding in the fifth to claim the match 6-3, 7-6(6), 4-6, 2-6, 6-3 win.<\/p>\n

It will be his first appearance in the quarter-finals and comes at the perfect time, given Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic have been eliminated and Carlos Alcaraz missed the tournament through injury.<\/p>\n

\"Jakub<\/p>\n

Jakub Mensik of Czech Republic celebrates defeating Andrey Rublev.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

It continues what has been a solid year for Mensik, who made the fourth round of the Australian Open in January and knocked out Aussie Alex De Minaur in the previous round.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old only debuted on the professional circuit in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He dropped his racquet and looked up to the sky upon winning the fifth set, setting up a huge quarter-final clash against fellow young gun Fonseca.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brazilian No.28 seed Joao Fonseca has advanced to the quarter-finals of the French Open, but a controversial moment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-707753","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\/707753","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=707753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}