Fonseca outlasts Van de Zandschulp in Cincinnati and will face qualifier

[p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/van-de-zandschulp-botic/YwiLpILD/"]Botic van de Zandschulp[/a] was initially set to face [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/griekspoor-tallon/f3zfMU5i/"]Tallon Griekspoor[/a] in the first round, but instead faced [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/shevchenko-alexander/jTIB3FIA/"]Aleksander Shevchenko[/a] after Griekspoor's withdrawal. Van de Zandschulp's straight-sets win left him the sole Dutchman in the Cincinnati main draw, with [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/de-jong-jesper/8jStUWzB/"]Jesper de Jong[/a] knocked out in straight sets by [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/michelsen-alex/nDIhfm9l/"]Alex Michelsen[/a].[/p][p]Van de Zandschulp faced 26th-ranked [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/fonseca-joao/tv073LUc/"]Joao Fonseca[/a] next, who opened his tournament on Sunday after a first-round bye.[/p][p]It was a flying start for Van de Zandschulp, who had a break chance in Fonseca's first service game and broke the Brazilian in the next to make an early mark in Cincinnati. However, the Dutchman faced an immediate re-break that seemed to awaken Fonseca.[/p][p]The Brazilian overpowered Van de Zandschulp with a love game to take full control of the momentum, though the Dutch underdog stayed in the fight. A poor service game late in the first set cost him dearly, however, with Fonseca profiting from Van de Zandschulp's mistake to take the first set after 41 minutes.[/p][image alt="Key match stats" id="f9bba071-b814-4446-b417-7de0b831d592" credit-line="Flashscore" guid="58a920a8-7809-47f9-8959-9b4a126fca6a" original-width="2160" original-height="2700" /][p]Fonseca had no trouble discarding Van de Zandschulp in his service games and dealt the first break himself this time around, putting the Dutchman down 3-1 to open a lane towards another match win.[/p][h2]Late comeback?[/h2][p]With two break chances in hand, Van de Zandschulp hit two unforced errors to keep Fonseca firmly in the driver's seat. The Dutchman saved a break point at 4-1 to stay alive and forced his way back into the game with a re-break to make it a one-game deficit at 4-3.[/p][p]The revived Van de Zandschulp had Fonseca facing a 30-0 deficit at 4-4 when the Brazilian got a time violation after losing 12 of the previous 15 points and got a break chance at 40-30 to really turn the set around, but lost with a wayward return on Fonseca's strong kickserve. It wasn't to be for Van de Zandschulp, who saw Fonseca hold his service game and get within one game of the win.[/p][embed guid="d9d4f67e-1753-4b8a-8b46-e5ade5e29ffe" url="https://x.com/CincyTennis/status/2089060928742445553?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p]Van de Zandschulp lost his rhythm in his following service game, giving Fonseca the lead through a double fault, but survived nonetheless. Fonseca secured his spot in a tiebreak with a love game - a favour Van de Zandschulp returned to force a crucial second-set decider.[/p][p]Fonseca started the tiebreak on the front foot with a quick mini-break and completely took over from there, profiting from several errors from Van de Zandschulp to end the tiebreak at 7-2 and book a ticket to the third round.[/p][p]With his win on Sunday, Fonseca will face Australian qualifier [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/o-connell-christopher/SptFeDiE/"]Christopher O'Connell[/a] next. O'Connell progressed to the third round after [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/ruud-casper/zN9UpRqp/"]Casper Ruud[/a]'s retirement.[/p][p][b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/tennis/fonseca-j-tv073LUc/van-de-zandschulp-b-YwiLpILD/?mid=Ae2030DF"]Check out the full match statistics on Flashscore[/a][/b][/p]