When the 18-year-old Brazilian Joao Fonseca beat the world No 9 at the time, Andrey Rublev, in this year’s Australian Open first round the hype machine went into overdrive. Here was the next big thing, a man who could bridge the gap to the world’s top two, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. When he went out in round two, questions were asked about the wisdom in talking up a man appearing in his first grand slam draw.
One month later, Fonseca proved he has the mental strength and resolve to match his undoubted talent. Facing Argentina’s Mariano Navone in the quarter-finals in Buenos Aires, in front of a hostile home crowd, he saved two match points and then went all the way to win his first ATP Tour title. He handled the occasion brilliantly, loving every minute. The hype is real.
“That was my biggest title and it was the most important of my career,” says Fonseca, breaking between practice sessions for his main draw debut at Wimbledon next week. “I won against four Argentinians in Argentina, which is very difficult because the crowd there is loud, and I needed to reverse a lot of situations. Navone had match points against me and he served for the match.
“The week was super important for my maturity and for my experience because, at that time, people were thinking: ‘OK, this guy is good, he’s talented, he can hit the ball hard, but let’s see if he has mentality and physicality’. I won because of these two things. It was important for myself to understand I was ready to fight until the last point.”
Fonseca’s easy playing style, mixed with raw power, has already drawn comparisons with Roger Federer, who happens to be his idol. A former junior world No 1, Fonseca won the Next Gen Finals last year and has climbed more than 650 places in the past 18 months to sit just outside the world’s top 50. If pressure and expectations are growing week on week, he sees it as an honour and a privilege rather than a burden.
“My coach [Guilherme Teixeira] always says to me that I like playing with pressure,” he says. “Sometimes I stay very nervous and sometimes the pressure puts my heart on alert and I play better. You just need to adapt and, when the nerves are coming, you need to find a way to win.
“I do some breathing exercises. It helped me sometimes. I think it [comes with] experience and maturity. It’s going to help me to be a better player and a better person.”
Fonseca was born in Rio de Janeiro and grew up with plenty of advantages. His mother, Roberta, played volleyball as a junior while his father, Christiano, co-founded IP Capital Partners, Brazil’s first independent asset management firm. Together with a family friend, they still take care of his management affairs and travel with him when they can. When he said he no longer wanted to go to university – Jannik Sinner also told him he was too good not to turn pro – they backed him completely. The family are close and keep him grounded.
“Both of my parents always supported me to go outside, stay off social media or cell phones,” he says. “We have a house in the mountains, a lot of nature, and we did a lot of cycling, soccer. I loved to go there with my brothers and friends, just to play some sports. That was really nice for my maturity, to be responsible, to not stay very much on the phone.
“I know my generation is really into the phone so it helped me. I like to stay with my phone, of course, but I’m not into social media any more. I know when I can stay with my phone and when I can’t.”
Like most Brazilians football is in his blood, but Fonseca is happy he chose tennis. “I used to play a lot of soccer when I was younger. My brother plays sometimes and I just say: ‘OK, I want to play, but I can’t’. In an athlete’s life, you need to make a deal with yourself. When I was 14, 15, I said to my coach: ‘I want to play football’. He said: ‘You’re going to be injured, you can’t’. I said: ‘OK’. You need to be responsible.”
His tennis is dazzling. Andre Agassi, the former world No 1 who will captain Fonseca at the Laver Cup this year, describes his “easy power”. “He can just generate with the same swing and inject pace into it,” he told The Tennis Channel recently. “With Carlos Alcaraz, you can see the pace getting injected. When Fonseca does it you don’t even see it coming. It’s like he’s throwing a jab, but it’s a straight right, except it’s a jab. It’s pretty crazy watching him.”
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Not surprisingly, Fonseca is a man in demand. He was an obvious fit for On, the Swiss running shoe and clothing manufacturer, joining Iga Swiatek and Ben Shelton as its first tennis signings in 2023. The lure of getting closer to Federer (an On shareholder) was too good to resist. “I already had the shoes … and it was Roger,” he says. “I wanted to meet Roger. I have still never met him, but I’m going to meet him, I think, I hope.”
His coach loves Rafael Nadal for his work ethic and has instilled that in Fonseca, but the Federer influence is strong. “He was just super talented,” he says. “He could hit the ball [so] easy. He is a very simple guy. I loved watching his interviews, the way he expressed himself, and the charisma.”
Not surprisingly, he idolised his fellow BrazilianGustavo Kuerten, the three-time French Open champion and former world No 1, following his example in always stopping to engage with fans. “When I was younger, I had an occasion that I asked for a photo and the guy was not nice to me. I always try to be very nice with the kids. Three years ago, it was me asking, so I know how it is.”
Winning Buenos Aires changed Fonseca’s goals, with a new focus on being seeded (inside the top 32) at next year’s Australian Open. Like everyone else, he watched the Roland Garros final between Sinner and Alcaraz in awe, appreciating just how much he needs to improve to get to the top. He also understands there will be ups and downs and will take grass, and Wimbledon, as it comes.
“I know there’s going to be some bad weeks,” he says. “The first weeks on clay I was not playing my best. Then in the French Open, I started playing much, much better.
“I know everything is possible. I can lose first round. I can win the tournament. I just need to focus match after match. Hopefully, I can do good things.”