{"id":741008,"date":"2026-07-03T14:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T14:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/741008\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T14:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T14:24:08","slug":"joao-fonseca-stunned-by-russian-qualifier-roman-safiullin-at-wimbledon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/741008\/","title":{"rendered":"Jo\u00e3o Fonseca stunned by Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin at Wimbledon"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON \u2013 Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin wiped away tears after beating Brazilian rising star Jo\u00e3o Fonseca 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon<\/a> on Friday.<\/p>\n

Safiullin, ranked No. 132, dealt with a knee injury last year but this week has eliminated two seeded opponents at the All England Club. He surprised 12th-seeded Andrey Rublev in the first round. Fonseca was seeded No. 24.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old Safiullin, a Wimbledon quarterfinalist in 2023, became emotional when he described his journey back.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the U.S. Open, I had to stop \u2014 for treating my injury,\u201d he said in an on-court interview. \u201cThat time was super tough. Even let\u2019s say half a year ago I didn\u2019t know if I will be able to be back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Safiullin then paused and used his shirt to wipe away tears as fans applauded on No. 2 Court.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m super happy to be back here,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Safiullin will face either Novak Djokovic or Arthur Rinderknech for a spot in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

Djokovic and Rinderknech were playing on Centre Court. Later, defending champion Jannik Sinner faces Jenson Brooksby<\/a> of the United States on No. 1 Court.<\/p>\n

In the women’s draw, top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka plays Jelena Ostapenko later on Centre Court.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2013 Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin wiped away tears after beating Brazilian rising star Jo\u00e3o Fonseca 6-3, 6-3,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":741009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[47638,53618,652,4,450,451,432,74827,51026,3,433,299656,99,452,453],"class_list":["post-741008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-andrey-rublev","tag-arthur-rinderknech","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-jannik-sinner","tag-jelena-ostapenko","tag-jenson-brooksby","tag-news","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-roman-safiullin","tag-sports","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=741008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}