Fonseca beats French qualifier Pavlovic, lines up Prizmic in a second-round meeting of bright young talents
João Fonseca (No 28) beat French qualifier Luka Pavlovic 7-6(6), 6-4, 6-2 on Court Simonne-Mathieu, in front of a crowd that felt closer to Rio than to Paris.
Joao Fonseca, Roland-Garros 2026 | © Julien Nouet / Tennis Majors
João Fonseca, the first Brazilian man to be seeded at Roland-Garros since Thomaz Bellucci in 2011, came through French qualifier Luka Pavlovic 7-6(6), 6-4, 6-2 on Court Simonne-Mathieu on Sunday to move into the second round, where the 19-year-old will face Croatia’s Dino Prizmic in one of the most anticipated young match-ups of the opening week.
The 28th seed had to work to settle. Pavlovic, a 26-year-old playing his first Grand Slam main-draw match after qualifying earlier in the week, took the opening set to a tie-break and earned a set point before Fonseca closed it out 8-6 in the breaker.
From there the Brazilian opened up, broke twice in the second set, and never gave his opponent a sniff in the third. It was, in the end, a confident performance from a player who had to withdraw from Hamburg the previous week as a precaution with a minor wrist injury.
Simonne-Mathieu felt, at times, more like Rio. The crowd, packed with Brazilian flags and yellow shirts, roared with every Fonseca winner against a French opponent, an inversion of the home advantage that drew comment from the player himself afterwards.
“It’s just crazy that even though we’re in France playing against a French guy, I see a lot of flags. I see a lot of t-shirts.”
“It’s just crazy that even though we’re in France playing against a French guy, a lot of people cheering and supporting,” Fonseca said. “I see a lot of flags. I see a lot of t-shirts. Thank you so much to everyone who came and made this crowd loud. Obrigado.”
The reward is a second-round contest that arrives loaded with future. Prizmic, the 20-year-old Croatian, came through his own opener with a straight-sets dismantling of American qualifier Michael Zheng 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 on Court 9. World No. 72, he has been on every projection of the next wave to step up in men’s tennis for two years, and his demolition of Zheng was the kind of result that earns a player a stage.
“Prizmic is one year olden than me”, Fonseca said. “I always thought he was an amazing player. He is rising in the rankings after having some injuries in the last couple of years.”
Fonseca, the 28th seed, and Prizmic, unseeded but ranked just inside the top 75, are 19 and 20 respectively. Both have the talent to make the second week of a Grand Slam, and the winner is seeded to meet Novak Djoković in the third round.
