Peter Staples/ATP Tour
Alex de Minaur returns to the Top 10 after a pulsating win over Joao Fonseca in the Miami fourth round.
By ATP Staff
Alex de Minaur secured a record-tying 17th match win of the season in a physical battle against #NextGenATP star Joao Fonseca on Monday at the Miami Open presented by Itau.
Tied with Felix Auger-Aliassime for the most wins this year, the Australian ended Fonseca’s run at the ATP Masters 1000 event with a thrilling 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 victory. Raucous Brazilian fans created a carnival feel inside Stadium court, prompting De Minaur to sign the camera lens, ‘Rio Open :)’ after the two-hour, 31-minute match.
The 10th seed dropped serve in the opening game of the decider, but fought back by engaging in lengthy baseline rallies and testing Fonseca’s endurance. The 26-year-old kept his cool and won six of the final seven games to hold off Fonseca and secure his place in the fourth round, equalling his best Miami result.
“It was a hell of a battle. I knew coming in what to expect. Not only is he an incredibly talented, dangerous, explosive player, but he’s playing with so much confidence at the moment and the crowd behind him,” said De Minaur. “I knew I was going to be up against it and it was going to take every single ounce of me. Just put my head down and got to work, so very happy with that win.”
Once a fighter, always a fighter 😈 @alexdeminaur gets the better of Fonseca in three brilliant sets and will face Berrettini for a place in the quarter-finals! @MiamiOpen | #MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/quweE7dvph
— ATP Tour (@atptour) March 25, 2025
De Minaur found success with a daring approach, targeting Fonseca's forehand early in rallies. Yet the bold strategy allowed the Aussie to open up the court, send the 18-year-old scrambling and rush Fonseca’s backhand. The teenager committed 43 unforced errors, including 25 off his double-hander.
“I think ultimately he is a big-time player, so he’s going to go for many, many shots that might not be high percentage. But now he’s playing with a lot of confidence and making them,” De Minaur said. “Earlier, he pulled off some great backhands, hit some backhands [down the line]. That forehand is so dangerous…
“Obviously, I know he’s still young, he’s played a lot of matches in a row. I knew if I could make this match physical, I had higher chances of it going my way.”
Level at 5-5 in the first set, Fonseca let out a loud roar after outlasting De Minaur in a baseline exchange in the opening point of the game. That adrenaline helped fuel the teenager to earn three consecutive break points, the first of the match for either player. Fonseca converted his second opportunity and closed out the opener on his serve.
De Minaur surged to a 3-0 lead in the second set, thanks to watertight baseline play while Fonseca was broken to love in a loose first service game. A topsy-turvy second set was filled with superb shotmaking from both, including Fonseca striking a Federer-like ‘SABR’ backhand return winner and later, the Brazilian was hitting so hard that his left shoe fell off mid-rally. The longer the rallies, the harder De Minaur and Fonseca pummelled the ball.
De Minaur fought off four of the five break points he faced in the second set — and five of eight for the match — according to Infosys ATP Stats. As the match extended beyond the two-hour mark, the nine-time tour-level titlist remained more consistent as Fonseca leaked errors in their first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting.
“You can go out there, you can complain, you can get rattled, do a lot of different things, but that’s not going to help you win the tennis match. Ultimately, that’s what I told myself, ‘It’s going to be a battle not only against the player, against the crowd, just put your head down and do the work and try to compete every single point’.”
De Minaur and Grigor Dimitrov are the only men to reach the fourth round of Indian Wells and Miami in both 2024 and 2025. Back inside the Top 10 of the PIF ATP Live Rankings, displacing Daniil Medvedev, De Minaur will next face 29th seed Matteo Berrettini, who ousted Belgian Zizou Bergs 6-4, 6-4.
De Minaur is seventh in the PIF ATP Live Race to Turin and could move as high as second should he win his first ATP Masters 1000 title as he looks to return to the Nitto ATP Finals for the second consecutive year.
Berrettini is into the Round of 16 at an ATP Masters 1000 event for the first time since 2023 Monte-Carlo and first on hard courts since 2022 Indian Wells. The Italian leads De Minaur 2-1 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series.
Fonseca, who ousted World No. 20 Ugo Humbert in the previous round, was aiming for his second Top 20 victory this tournament. The Rio de Janeiro native is No. 58 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, two spots ahead of his career high. Fonseca was on a seven-match winning streak across all levels, having earned an ATP Challenger Tour title in Phoenix before arriving in south Florida.
Fonseca boasts a 22-5 season record across all levels, highlighted by his maiden tour-level title in Buenos Aires.
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