Fonseca becomes youngest Roland Garros match winner since Alcaraz; Draper advances

Joao Fonseca made a sparkling Roland Garros debut on Tuesday when he ousted the in-form Hubert Hurkacz 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.

The 18-year-old is the second-youngest match winner at the clay-court major in the past 10 years, only behind an 18-year-old Carlos Alcaraz in 2021.

Fonseca struck the ball confidently and fed off the energy of a packed Court 7. He left the 30th-seed Hurkacz searching for answers, overpowering him from the baseline and matching that heavy hitting with watertight consistency. Hurkacz was a finalist at last week's ATP 250 event in Geneva, where he fell to Novak Djokovic in a three-hour, five-minute final.

“I played really well, focusing a lot on the returns and serves,” said Fonseca, last year’s champion at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF. “I knew a lot of great serves were going to come and I was just focusing on putting the first return [in], the plus one, the return plus-one, put it in the middle and try to be as aggressive as I can. Try to focus on opportunities, go to the net, and try to be aggressive when I can."

Fonseca now boasts an 11-7 tour-level season record, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index. At the Australian Open, he earned a memorable first main-draw win at a major by stunning ninth seed Andrey Rublev. Fonseca won his maiden tour-level title the following month in Buenos Aires.

At No. 57 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, Fonseca will next face French veteran Pierre-Hugues Herbert, 16 years his senior.

In other Paris action, Jack Draper’s clay-court evolution continued when he overcame a tricky start to notch his maiden match win at Roland Garros.

The fifth seed overcame Mattia Bellucci 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 in heavy conditions under the Court Suzanne-Lenglen roof, which was closed due to steady rain in the French capital. Draper broke serve five times across the second, third and fourth sets to improve to 10-3 on clay in 2025. That tally includes his maiden final on the surface at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Madrid as well as a quarter-final run in Rome.

Back from a set down… Draper does it 👊

He defeats Bellucci 3-6 6-1 6-4 6-2... 🔥

#rolandgarros #jackdraper pic.twitter.com/s096Ibp79Y

— ATP Tour (@atptour) May 27, 2025

“I think Bellucci came out and played really aggressive from the start,” said Draper after improving to 2-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Bellucci. “He was coming out with some amazing shots, caught me a little bit off guard. I served a couple of double faults, which doesn’t help at this level where everyone plays incredible tennis. The margins are so small.

"I’m really proud of the way I was able to turn the game on its head. I started to be more aggressive. It was a really tough battle and credit to Mattia, who played incredible.”

Draper, who is currently up one spot at No. 4 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, will play home favourite Gael Monfils or Bolivia’s Hugo Dellien next in Paris. The 23-year-old is looking to add a first Grand Slam title to his maiden Masters 1000 crown, which he won in March in Indian Wells.