{"id":39635,"date":"2025-07-05T02:24:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T02:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/39635\/"},"modified":"2025-07-05T02:24:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T02:24:17","slug":"wimbledon-recap-jarry-beats-fonseca-as-south-american-tennis-makes-mark-at-all-england-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/39635\/","title":{"rendered":"Wimbledon recap: Jarry beats Fonseca as South American tennis makes mark at All England Club"},"content":{"rendered":"

An earlier version of this article misstated Nicol\u00e1s Jarry\u2019s nationality. He is Chilean, not Argentinian.<\/p>\n

Follow The Athletic\u2019s Wimbledon coverage<\/a><\/p>\n

Welcome to the Wimbledon briefing, where The Athletic\u00a0will explain the stories behind the stories on each day of the tournament.<\/p>\n

On day five, a South American derby delivered, fortune favored a lucky loser and a second-week appearance meant more to one player than most.<\/p>\n

Unexpected South American success in SW19<\/p>\n

South America is having itself a pretty solid Wimbledon, just not in the way anyone might have expected.<\/p>\n

When the tournament started, names like Fonseca or Haddad Maia seemed far more likely for runs to the second week than the surviving South Americans.<\/p>\n

When the dust settled Friday evening, it had two players in the rounds of 16, in Nicol\u00e1s Jarry of Chile and Solana Sierra of Argentina. It\u2019s hard to overestimate how hard they had to get there. More on Sierra in a bit.<\/p>\n

Jarry has barely won matches since he made the Italian Open final last year. He had to survive qualifying to earn a first-round date with Holger Rune, where he came back from two sets down to win. On Friday he beat Jo\u00e3o Fonseca, tipped for stardom when he is a little older, in four sets.<\/p>\n

South America, a continent with a fervent tennis fan base, doesn\u2019t get a proportional share of attention from the tours. North America has four 1,000-level events, just below the Grand Slams. Europe has five. There is one in Dubai and one in Doha, plus the WTA Tour Finals in Saudi Arabia, which is earmarked to get a 1,000 in the future. South America has zero.<\/p>\n

Hopes for changing that may rest with Fonseca, a supreme talent from Brazil, the continent\u2019s largest country, which has been without a big-time player since Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil a quarter-century ago. Tennis officials describe Fonseca as a potential game-changer.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a lot to put on the shoulders of a teenager playing his first year of ATP Tour tennis. Fonseca has said he can feel the pressure. He knows what the sport and Brazilians at home and abroad are hoping for him.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s going to take a little time, and the third round of his first Wimbledon is a very respectable showing given that he has barely played on grass. Carlos Alcaraz only made the second round of his first Wimbledon in 2021, when he was 18. He made the third round of the French Open that year and the second round of the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

Fonseca has made the last 32 here and in Paris, and the second round in Australia.<\/p>\n

After the loss to Jarry, he spoke about how much he is learning about Grand Slam tennis and ups and downs of a five-set match. In Australia, he wondered whether he could last five sets. Now he knows he can, and that things can change very quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you go to a Grand Slam, the players play differently,\u201d he said. They are much more focused.\u201d<\/p>\n

He hears the noise, people saying he is the next Sinner or Alcaraz. He appreciates it, but is trying to stay inside his head, no matter what anyone else says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just going to be me,\u201d he said. \u201cSome people understand that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt Futterman<\/p>\n

At a Wimbledon of upsets, fortune favors the lucky loser<\/p>\n

Now for Sierra. Amid all the chaos and upsets this week, it\u2019s fitting that Friday saw another first for the underdog.<\/p>\n

By beating Cristina Buc\u0219a, Solana Sierra became the first lucky loser to reach the Wimbledon fourth round in the Open Era.<\/p>\n

Lucky loser is the term given to players who lose in qualifying but then get a spot in the main draw when someone pulls out. So they are ranked outside the top 100, and have just lost to players in a similar postcode: the underdog\u2019s underdog.<\/p>\n

Sierra, 21 and from Argentina, is ranked No. 101. She had never won a Grand Slam match before this week, and only had eight wins at WTA Tour level with none on grass. She won 52 of 72 matches in 2024 on the third-tier ITF World Tennis Tour, but lost her only match on grass then too \u2014 in Wimbledon qualifying.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Solana Sierra celebrates becoming the first lucky loser to reach the Wimbledon fourth round since 1968. (Mike Hewitt \/ Getty Images)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her run follows Eva Lys, another lucky loser, reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open in January, which is also an Open Era first.<\/p>\n

Next up for Sierra is a last-16 match against Siegemund on Sunday. Who, appropriately enough for this Wimbledon, is ranked lower than her, at No. 104.<\/p>\n

Yet another reminder of the depth in women\u2019s tennis \u2014 and of the randomness of this year\u2019s Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

Charlie Eccleshare<\/p>\n

Two very different Wimbledons for one player<\/p>\n

At Wimbledon 2024, Russian tennis player Andrey Rublev reached the bottom of a very deep hole. In a first-round defeat to Argentina\u2019s Francisco Comesana, Rublev obliterated his racket against his leg in frustration, as had become a habit for him.<\/p>\n

Rublev, who has reached 10 major quarterfinals but never gone beyond the last eight at a Grand Slam, later discussed the impact of tennis on his mind at that time. He acknowledged that defeats had left him without control of his thoughts off the court, that he had reached a point when he did not \u201csee the reason of living life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you learn the most from the worst cases,\u201d Rublev said during an interview in Dubai earlier this year, another place of things were coming full circle. At the 2023 Dubai Tennis Championships, Rublev was defaulted from a match against Alexander Bublik<\/a> after he screamed in the face of the line judge and was alleged to have used a Russian expletive. Rublev was defaulted from the match, and was stripped of his prize money and ranking points from the tournament, but they were later reinstated.<\/p>\n

For Rublev, learning meant speaking to a psychologist, as well as reconfiguring his feelings about himself as a tennis player. No, he has never reached a Grand Slam semifinal. But going deep in the biggest events and being a reliable fixture at them? That makes him a good player. How can he put himself down about that, he would think.<\/p>\n

That mindset explains why reaching the second week this year is such a milestone. Rublev returned to a site of one of his most painful moments, and has produced a calm, consistent level of tennis even while so many seeds around him are losing.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow this year, of course, I\u2019m happy that I am able to win three matches,\u201d he said in his news conference after beating Adrian Mannarino 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 to reach the fourth round.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I did better than last year. It\u2019s already better than nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

James Hansen<\/p>\n

Other notable results on day five<\/strong><\/p>\n