{"id":307084,"date":"2025-12-09T14:42:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T14:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/307084\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T14:42:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T14:42:17","slug":"alcaraz-gives-verdict-after-hotly-anticipated-first-clash-with-fonseca-tennis-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/307084\/","title":{"rendered":"Alcaraz gives verdict after hotly anticipated first clash with Fonseca | Tennis | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> finally faced teenage sensation Joao Fonseca<\/a> in their hotly anticipated first meeting, albeit at an exhibition event. The world No. 1 came back from 0-5 down in the first-to-10-point match tiebreak to seal a 7-5 2-6 [10-8] victory on a unique court built inside the LoanDepot Park – the ballpark home to MLB team, the Miami Marlins.<\/p>\n

The six-time Major winner and the world No. 24 also teamed up with Jessica Pegula<\/a> and Amanda Anisimova for a mixed doubles competition. Anisimova got the better of Pegula in their singles clash, but it was Alcaraz and Pegula who came out on top in the 10-point mixed doubles tiebreak.<\/p>\n

Ahead of his first clash with Fonseca, the world No. 1 said his rival had \u201centered the tour with a lot of force\u201d, and talked up his game. After sealing victory, Alcaraz told Tennis Channel: \u201cWell, it was really, really special playing with Joao.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t ever played against him, so this was the first time, in this beautiful scenario. Never played in a baseball stadium before. So it was really special coming back to Miami in front of these amazing people that bring, always, a great energy. It was a great opportunity and a special moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fonseca, meanwhile, learned how difficult it was to face the six-time Grand Slam champion. Laughing, he replied: \u201cYeah, I almost got it, guys! It\u2019s tough, he has a little bit of skill and the guy is good, the guy is really good. It\u2019s a pleasure being here, it\u2019s a pleasure playing against Carlos. Very thankful for Carlos, and congratulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Brazilian enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2025, starting the year on a high when he qualified for the Australian Open<\/a> and stunned No. 9 seed Andrey Rublev on his Grand Slam main draw debut. Fonseca followed it up by winning his maiden tour title in Buenos Aires a few weeks later.<\/p>\n

And the 19-year-old had an even stronger end to the season, collecting his second trophy at the ATP 500 event in Basel<\/a> and reaching a career-high ranking of No. 24, having started the year outside of the world\u2019s top 140.<\/p>\n

Fonseca vowed to shave his head after winning his biggest title<\/a> at the Swiss Indoors, and he delivered, arriving in Miami with a new buzzcut. And the teenage star wasn\u2019t the only opponent Alcaraz faced in Florida.<\/p>\n

Alcaraz also had the chance to hit with Ronaldo Nazario on the unique court inside the Marlins\u2019 home stadium. Ronaldo later signed a shirt for the 22-year-old before watching the players in action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Alcaraz finally faced teenage sensation Joao Fonseca in their hotly anticipated first meeting, albeit at an exhibition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[122789,870,15927,73503,101,118,872,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-307084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-alcaraz-vs-fonseca","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-joao-fonseca","tag-miami-invitational","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-tennis-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}