Monaco, April 9 Brazilian teenager Joao Fonseca has become the youngest quarterfinalist at the Monte-Carlo Masters since 18-year-olds Rafael Nadal and Richard Gasquet achieved the feat in 2005. He won a forehand battle with Matteo Berrettini, 10 years his senior, on Thursday.
The 19-year-old claimed four service breaks and dropped just three points on his first serve in a 6-3, 6-2 victory to advance to his first quarterfinal at the ATP Masters 1000 level. Moreover, Fonseca is the second man born in 2006 to reach the quarterfinals at an ATP Masters 1000 event, joining Martin Landaluce, who reached that stage in Miami last month.
As both players uncorked their serves and forehands, there was little separating them in the match until Fonseca put Berrettini on the back foot in the eighth game. Backpedalling at the net, the Italian netted an awkward lob, and then on break point down, he netted an overly aggressive forehand moving backwards deep and wide behind the baseline to drop serve. Fonseca then served out the set to love, according to reports.
The decisive moment of the second set came in the fifth game. Berrettini had just broken back for 2-all but was staring down a break point. Fonseca’s routine cross-court forehand volley clipped the net, giving Berrettini plenty of time to set up a midcourt pass into an open court. Still, the Italian pushed it wide as the Brazilian hustled to his left to entice the 29-year-old into overplaying his forehand.
Fonseca, who is the first Brazilian Masters 1000 quarter-finalist since Thomaz Bellucci in Madrid in 2011, will next meet the winner of the match between third-seeded German Alexander Zverev and Belgian Zizou Bergs.
Fonseca, who is making his debut in Monte-Carlo, is up five spots to No. 35 in the ATP Live Rankings after levelling his ATP Head-to-Head series with Berrettini at 1-1.
Berrettini, meanwhile, remains at No. 90 in the Live Rankings, far below his career-high of No. 6.
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