Joao Fonseca and Stefanos Tsitsipas’ match at the Canadian Open was not short of drama.
Fonseca suffered a disappointing result at Wimbledon this year, where he lost in the third round to qualifier Roman Safiullin.
The Brazilian teenager had not played another match until the Canadian Open, where Fonseca beat Tsitsipas 7-6(3), 7-5.
Despite putting up a competitive showing, Tsitsipas was vocally unhappy about the courts in Montreal, and now Fonseca has responded.
Joao Fonseca comments after Stefanos Tsitsipas compares the Canadian Open courts to a ‘public court’
During the early stages of the second set, Tsitsipas was heard expressing his frustrations about the Canadian Open courts to the umpire.
In this rant, Tsitsipas compared the courts to public courts, claiming that they were uneven and were not bouncing right, but the umpire did not appear to agree.
Tsitsipas said, “Do you see the bounce? This is like a court from a public court. It has like, a bounce, like this. Do you see it? It’s not a singles court. It’s a Masters 1000. What are we doing?…I would never miss this.”
Umpire: “Do you see anything on court now?”
Stef: “It’s uneven.”
Umpire: “There is no bubble. There is no proper bubble.”
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Fonseca was asked about Tsitsipas’ complaints in his post-match press conference, to which he claimed the courts were quite bouncy, but he was able to adapt to the conditions as the match went on.
“Well, I saw a little bit, like when I play in the practice courts, I felt a little bit bouncy, but in the center court it’s a little bit more bouncy,” answered Fonseca. “Sometimes when he hits his backhand, which has more spin, higher, sometimes the ball bounced a little bit, and it’s difficult to read it.
“But, yeah, after I got used to it. So, yeah, you need to adapt to the circumstances of the court and, yeah, you need to find solutions.”
Who is Joao Fonseca playing next at the Canadian Open?
This was Fonseca’s first ever win at the Canadian Open, and now he will play against ninth seed Casper Ruud.
Fonseca has only played Ruud once before, which took place in the fourth round of Roland Garros earlier this year.
Backing up his previous victory over Novak Djokovic, Fonseca was able to beat Ruud 7-5, 7-6(8), 5-7, 6-2.
Fonseca will hope to do so against at the Canadian Open, where an opportunity has opened with five of the top eight seeds already out of the tournament.
The match between Fonseca and Ruud will take place on Friday, August 7, with the winner facing either Ben Shelton or Zizou Bergs.
