“Obviously when someone is going toe to toe with Jannik, that means he had to play great tennis and perform really, really well,” Alcaraz said when asked about Fonseca in Indian Wells. “I couldn’t see the full match, but I saw that Joao is playing great tennis. I’m really happy to see Joao playing these kinds of matches, at this kind of level.”
The world No. 1, who put on a listless performance six days ago in losing his first match of the season in the Indian Wells semifinals to Daniil Medvedev, was anything but against the Brazilian to avoid a second-round upset for the second consecutive year.
Breaking Fonseca early in each set, Alcaraz saved all three break points he faced, hit 26 winners to 22 unforced errors, and landed almost 70% of his first serves.
Alcaraz is bidding to win his second title in Miami, having lifted the trophy in 2022.
