Carlos Alcaraz cuts through the noise to ease past Joao Fonseca at Miami Open | Tennis

As Carlos Alcaraz made his serve move in the middle of his opening match at the Miami Open, a scream pierced the night air. One of the 16,000 spectators breathlessly applauding Alcaraz’s passing had tried to distract the Spaniard just before he kicked the ball.

In a spectacular atmosphere unlike many other Masters 1000 second round matches in recent memory, Alcaraz maturely faced both a passionate, adversarial crowd and a prodigious teenage opponent in Joao Fonseca to reach the third round of the Miami Open with a 6-4, 6-4 victory.

This meeting was eagerly awaited since Fonseca began to emerge on the tour. At just 19 years old, Fonseca has quickly climbed the rankings, leapfrogging many legendary players thanks to some of his early achievements, such as an ATP 500 title in Basel last year.

Excitement for a meeting with Alcaraz was further increased by Fonseca’s excellent performance against Jannik Sinner at Indian Wells last week, where he lost in two high-quality deciding sets. But here, Alcaraz, a 22-year-old statesman, was clinical. He handled Fonseca effortlessly, breaking early in both sets, serving well and using his shot variety and defense to separate himself from his opponent. While the Brazilian is already one of the most destructive shooters in the game, his standout forehand, Fonseca’s return of serve, movement and shot selection are all areas of his game that still need to improve.

“When I faced the best tennis player in the world when I came out,” Alcaraz said, “that really helped me and my team a lot. Those matches gave me feedback to know what I should improve in practice. I’m pretty sure he and his team talk about it and then go into practice and see what he should improve and how he should handle certain situations.

“It reminds me a lot [of me] when I was his age and just growing up. I would say he should choose the best option. Sometimes he missed a few shots or sometimes he missed a lot of easy balls because he doesn’t choose the right shots, the right ball in certain situations. I’m pretty sure he’ll get it.

Fonseca draws a massive audience full of Brazilian fans from around the world, but Miami’s Latino population naturally makes the tournament one of its strongholds. The atmosphere was great from the first point. However, by the end of the match, Alcaraz’s performance had completely silenced them. Yet he refused to find satisfaction in ruining his dreams with his racket.

“I would like to say it wasn’t against me, it was in support of him,” Alcaraz said. “So I think that’s a big difference, and I would say they were respectful, I would say most of the match, just supporting him when they needed to. So it was great and I enjoyed the atmosphere so much that I just experienced the second round of a Masters 1000.

“I think it was amazing to be honest. I didn’t want to silence anyone. I just wanted to [be] do my job, do my job and try to play my best because I know Joao, what he is capable of doing in a tennis class. So I just try to be focused, try not to hear anything from the crowd and move forward all the time. I’m proud that I was able to do it, but at the same time I had so much fun with a great atmosphere there.

Elsewhere, world number one and Indian Wells champion Aryna Sabalenka began her quest for the Sunshine Double with a hard-fought 7-6(5), 6-4 second-round win over American Ann Li. Sabalenka was joined by Elena Rybakina, seeded third but ranked No.2 this week, who eased her opening match with a 6-3, 6-3 win over fellow Kazakh Yulia Putintseva.