MIAMI OPEN PRESENTED BY ITAú

March 20, 2026

Joao Fonseca

Press Conference

C. ALCARAZ/J. Fonseca

6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. You talked a lot before the match about how the Sinner experience very recently would help you in this occasion. How much did you feel that? And you're already getting more used to playing these top guys on the big courts now?

JOAO FONSECA: Well, I think it helped me to understand of course different types of games. I think Alcaraz has more arsenal than Sinner. Sinner is more like a robot that just kills the ball and does everything perfect.

Carlos, he can do everything. He can do with topspin, can fire the ball, he has good movement. Goes to the net. He has everything. It's more, like, difficult to understand the game. He breaks a lot your rhythm.

And until the beginning, I was not serving well, and he was returning good the second serves. He got more used to, on court, and this I felt a lot. He got more -- I think he, in the beginning, was a little bit more pressure, same as me, but yeah, he got an early break in the beginning of first set and in the beginning of the second set, and then he played his game with good shots, going to the net, and approaching.

So, yeah, I think Jannik's game helped me to enter the court with no fear, trying to play my game. But I think I didn't got the opportunities that I had, and of course he played good. He's No. 1 in the world. But I need to think about my mistakes and trying to improve.

Q. What did Carlos tell you at the net? He gave you some kind of nice words, apparently.

JOAO FONSECA: He said, Good match, congratulations, and keep going. You have a great future, so keep going.

Something like that, yeah.

Q. You may have touched on this earlier, but you played Carlos in some exhibition matches in December, and obviously you have seen him play a lot, but having faced his ball today, was there anything in particular, like specifically about one of his shots or anything that surprised you, like, took you back?

JOAO FONSECA: Yeah, something like I just said. I mean, exhibitions of course is different type of game. He entered the court here a little bit more pressure. Me, same.

But I think, same as I said, I think he breaks a lot of rhythm. He has slices, he has topspin, he goes more to the angles. So he has most of everything.

So you don't know what it's coming, and if it's coming serve, serve and volley, if it's going serve wide and do a plus-one shot, you kind of don't know.

So, yeah, that's the difficulty of playing against him. You need to almost play a perfect match.

So, yeah, I tried my best, I tried to have opportunities, but yeah, when I had a breakpoint, I miss a return or he served well.

Yeah, those are the opportunities I can't miss, but yeah, it was a good match, and yeah, I think those are the difference he did today.

Q. Record crowd tonight, over 17,000. How much fun was it to play in that kind of atmosphere?

JOAO FONSECA: I mean, it was amazing, but a great crowd. It's always great to play someone which is very good, with great charisma, and have the crowd on -- I think it was more like 60/40 for me. I will say something like that.

70/30? (Smiling.) Yeah, something like that, but it was kind of a great atmosphere. They respect Carlos.

Yeah, it was a fun match. Carlos, he played some amazing shots. Yeah, it was entertaining, and I think was good for the crowd.