Photo Source: TTV
Joao Fonseca applied intense pressure from first ball on Saturday evening in Madrid.
Tommy Paul weathered all the challenges and edged past the Brazilian wunderkind in two entertaining sets, 7-6(7), 7-6(3), to set a third-round clash with Karen Khachanov. 11th-seeded Paul saved a pair of set points in each set, and denied Fonseca on 10 of his 11 break point opportunities to win in two hours and five minutes.
“I thought the level was awesome,” Paul said. “From the jump he really had me on my toes, he was in every single one of my service games in the first set, and he was pushing the pressure of the match very well.
“My serve bailed me out quite a bit in the first set – I’m happy to get through.”
The first set was the biggest hill for Paul to climb. He saved four break points in his second service game of the match, then another two while serving at 2-2. In the tiebreak, he rallied from 6-4 down, taking five of the final six points to clear the hurdle.
“He hits the ball very hard, you have to run down a lot of balls,” Paul said. “I was serving-and-volleying at smart times and used the whole court. He’s an awesome player and fun to play against – I’m sure we’ll see a lot more of him.”
After a trade of breaks in the second set, Paul again came through in the tiebreak, this time without much fuss. He converted his first match points to match his career-best performance at Madrid and improve to 16-6 on the season.
Paul is one of five Americans to have reached the third round, along with Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton, Sebastian Korda and Frances Tiafoe.