João Fonseca and Marcelo Melo beat the German pair Mark Wallner and Jakob Schnaitter and are in the final in the doubles match at the Rio Open. Thus, Brazil still has a chance of winning the tournament.
The Brazilians started the match well and closed the first set 6-2. The German pair came back in the second, by the same score. In the super tie-break, a close contest, with Melo and Fonseca even saving a match point. In the end, the victory came 13 to 11.
The final, this Sunday (22), will be played between the Brazilians and the winners of the dispute between the duo Constantin Frantzen (ALE)/Robin Hasse (HOL) and Mnanuel Guinard (FRA)/Guido Andreozzi (ARG).
While Fonseca is the most promising Brazilian tennis player of recent times and currently ranked number 38 in the world, Melo, 42, has enjoyed great success as a doubles player. He was already number 1 in the world, in 2015, and won two grand slams (Roland Garros, in 2015, and Wimbledon, in 2017), in addition to reaching the final of the US Open in 2015 and the Australian Open in 2018.
In the singles contest, Fonseca lost to Peruvian Ignacio Buse by 2 sets to 1 (7/5, 3/6 and 4/6) on Thursday (19) and once again let his goal of becoming the first Brazilian champion of the tournament slip away. Last year, he was eliminated in the first round by Frenchman Alexandre Müller, by 2 sets to 0 (1/6 and 6/7).
In addition to Fonseca, João Lucas Reis da Silva, Gustavo Heide, Igor Marcondes, Thiago Monteiro and Luiz Augusto Queiroz Miguel, known as Gutão, participated in the singles competition. All have already been eliminated.
The Argentine Tomás Etcheverry, the Czech Vit Kopriva, Buse —who beat the Italian Mateo Berrettini, one of the stars of the tournament, in the quarterfinals— and the Chilean Alejandro Tabilo are still alive in the dispute.
The first two face each other this Saturday, at 5pm; the other dispute takes place at 7pm.
