Lucky Loser Walton still winning, top American Fritz is next
03.24.25
Adam Walton
By Harvey Fialkov
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — While one dream was dashed, another lived on when Lucky Loser Adam Walton outlasted Hong Kong wild card Coleman Wong in a roller-coaster, three-set, third-round victory at the Miami Open presented by Itaú on an overcast, comfortable Monday morning.
After losing in the second round of qualifying Walton was fourth on the Lucky Loser list, in which players have a second chance to get into the main draw if players pull out with injuries.
Walton had packed his car and went out to practice with fellow Aussie Rinky Hijikata – who he shares a coach with – when he got the call from the Tour manager that he got in because former 2021 Miami Open champion Hubert Hurkacz withdrew with a back injury. Because the Pole was seeded, Walton went right into the second round.
“My car was fully packed because after I was going to watch Rinky play [Novak Djokovic] I was going to catch a plane the next night for Mexico City to play a Challenger,’’ said Walton, 25, who has won four Challenger titles, but had just five tour-level wins after his second-round win over 61st-ranked Italian Luciano Darderi.
“A bunch of good fortune has happened. I was a Lucky Loser not meant to be in the draw and to be given a second chance and to take advantage of it is really special.”
Walton, who has a huge serve but shows very little emotion on the court, squeaked by the 182nd, 20-year-old Wong — who has trained at Rafael Nadal’s tennis academy in Mallorca for three years — 7-6 (6), 4-6, 6-4.
Both were on serve until 4-4 of the third set when Walton got the decisive break on Wong’s forehand into the net just as a loud police siren went off behind Court 1. Walton then calmly served it out from 0-30 with the help of groundstroke errors from Wong. He let out a yell and next will play world No. 4 Taylor Fritz of Miami on the same Stadium Court he lost to Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime last year.
“It’s a completely new opportunity as I’ve never played anyone in the Top 10,’’ said Walton, who grew up in a small town in Queensland but went to boarding school in Brisbane to pursue tennis. “So that will be a special chance.’’
Just by reaching the fourth round Walton is assured of a career-best payday of $103,225. Even if tennis doesn’t work out, Walton played tennis for the University of Tennessee for five years, earning a degree in kinesiology and a graduate degree in management and human resources.
Fritz, 27, who improved his record against Canadian Denis Shapovalov to 5-6 – all on hard courts – with a 7-5, 6-3 victory, said he will check out some video of Walton. Shapovalov falls to 5-27 against Top 5 players. Fritz slammed nine aces and won 84 percent of his first serves. At one point, he seemed to hyperextend his knee on a fall, but later said he was fine.
“You kind of just feel really good as a Lucky Loser,’’ said Fritz, the first American to be seeded third in Miami since Andy Roddick in 2007. “You come in with nothing to lose, and you start playing really well. I feel like this kind of thing happens all the time, so I have to obviously be ready. He has nothing to lose.”
When the tournament began there were 19 American men, the most since 1996, but after flashy 20-year-old, 17th-seeded Frenchman Arthur Fils outslugged 16th-seeded Frances Tiafoe 7-6 (11), 5-7, 6-2 on a packed Grandstand, and 6-foot-11 Reilly Opelka was chopped down by Czech Tomas Machac, 7-6 (1), 6-3, only Fritz remained in the top half of the draw. Tiafoe hasn’t won two matches in a row since his semifinal run at last summer’s US Open.
On Tuesday, the bottom half will complete its third round, giving Americans’ Brandon Nakashima (vs. 2024 Miami finalist Grigor Dimitrov) and Sebastian Korda (vs. unseeded French veteran Gael Monfils), their chance to stick around.
Dangerous Italian floater Matteo Berrettini, a 2021 Wimbledon finalist and sixth in the world before injuries derailed his career, earned the Tour’s Comeback Player of the Year award in 2024, and is looking sharp this week. His massive forehand and serves were enough to dispatch Belgium’s Zizou Bergs, 6-4, 6-4 to move into the round of 16.
Berrettini, 28, will play speedy 10th-seeded Aussie Alex de Minaur, who broke thousands of hearts Monday night by sending the rabid Brazlian fans home after screaming their lungs out for 18-year-old phenom Joao Fonseca in a 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 stratospheric skill level loss.
De Minaur is 16-1 against players outside the Top 30 – which the 60th-ranked Brazlian surely won’t be for long – and he tied Aliassime with a Tour-leading 18 wins this year.
Repeated attempts by chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani to quiet the raucous Brazilian soccer-like crowd went unheeded in a Mardi Gras-like atmosphere.
However, it was Fonseca orchestrating them especially when he was about to break De Minaur at 5-5 of the first set, causing the crowd to erupt in chants of his name: JOAO-FON-SECA!! In the end, it was De Minaur’s indomitable defense and pinpoint backhands that eventually wore down the talented teenager.
De Minaur signed the camera lens: “Rio Open.”
“It was a hell of a battle,’’ De Minaur said. “I knew coming in what to expect. Not only is he an incredibly talented, dangerous, explosive player, but he’s playing with so much confidence at the moment and the crowd is behind him.
“I knew I was going to be up against it and it was going to take every single ounce of me. Just put my head down and got to work. I’m very happy with that win.”
Fonseca said he gained a massive amount of experience in this tournament and loved every minute of it.
“Alex is an experienced guy,’’ he said. “He’s already been on tour for a long, long time. So, he knows how to play in the circumstances, with the crowd against him. In the important points I had chances. I had opportunities to close the doors for him, but he took the opportunities that he had.
“He’s a Top-10 player; he runs for every ball. He’s a great fighter. I knew I couldn’t finish the point from one ball. I needed to do three or four.”
Fonseca felt right at home on Stadium Court.
“I felt really in Brazil,’’ said Fonseca of Rio de Janeiro. “Not only the crowd, but the organization treated me like I was in Brazil. So, it was super cool. I really like the tournament. Probably one of my favorite tournaments now.
“Playing with the top players, you kind of know where your level is. I really see that I’m on the right path.”
Fonseca’s Next Gen peer Jakub Mensik, 19, overpowered Russian Roman Safiullin 6-4, 6-4 in another clean outing with 15 aces while facing no break points and ripping 21 winners to just six errors. He will face fellow Czech Machac next.
