The young man from Rio João Fonseca, 19 years old, and the experienced Minas Gerais native Marcelo Melo, 42, made their debut with victory in the Rio Open doubles tournament. On the afternoon of this Monday (16), they beat the partnership between Argentine Ramón Burruchaga and Italian Andrea Pellegrino by 2 sets to 0, partials of 6/4 and 6/4, on the Guga Kuerten Court, the main one of the Brazilian Jockey Club, which is located in Gávea, south of Rio de Janeiro.
The main name in Brazilian tennis today, João is 38th in the singles ranking of the Association of Professional Tennis Players (ATP), but he is not used to playing as a doubles player, like Burruchaga and Pellegrino.
Marcelo, on the contrary, is number 59 in the world in doubles and occupied the lead in 2015. Furthermore, he was champion of the tournament last year, alongside Rafael Matos from Rio Grande do Sul.
Initially, João and Marcelo would face Bosnian Damir Dzumhur and Frenchman Alexandre Müller. Minutes before the match started, the organization informed that Müller withdrew from the Rio Open due to a muscle strain.
As a result, Burruchaga – who is the son of Jorge Burruchaga, former football player and world champion for Argentina in 1986 – and Pellegrino were called up at the last minute. The first is also in the main singles bracket. The second fell in the qualifying – preliminary phase, which brings together athletes with lower positions in the ATP rankings – by Lithuanian Villius Gaubas last Sunday (15).
In the quarterfinals, the Brazilians will face whoever passes in the clash between Argentines Andrés Molteni (24th) and Máximo González (31st) against the partnership of Ecuadorian Gonzalo Escobar (76th) and Dutchman Jean-Julien Rojer (85th). The match has yet to be scheduled.
In addition to the doubles tournament, João is also competing in singles. The debut will be in a 100% Brazilian duel, against Ceará’s Thiago Monteiro, number 208 in the world and who occupied 61st place in 2022. The match is expected to take place this Tuesday (17), at a time and court to be defined by the organization.
The Rio Open has been taking place since 2014. It is a level 500 competition, the third in importance and scoring value on the calendar, behind only the level 1000 tournaments and the Grand Slams, as the four biggest events in world tennis are known: Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open.
