Larri Passos, 67, says he laughed to himself when reading a message sent by his youngest daughter last week.
“Oh, shit,” said Sofia, with whom he lives in Naples, southwest Florida, in the United States.
The swearing by the 16-year-old, who grew up in North America, was a reaction to the Australian Open draw. In his first match in the main draw of a Grand Slam, João Fonseca, 18, would face Russian Andrei Rublev, ninth in the world rankings.
“Don’t worry, he’ll win,” Larri replied. Surprised, she asked if her father was sure: “Are you sure?” Larri repeated the words.
The conviction of the coach and mentor of Gustavo Kuerten, world number one for 43 weeks in 2000 and 2001 and three-time winner of the French Open, at the Roland Garros complex, was confirmed last Tuesday (14). Fonseca beat Rublev 3 sets to 0.
“João is a guy that I can call: no holes. The work done with him so far is practically perfect. He has a fluid technique, he doesn’t make any effort before the time. He even made some adjustments to the first serve, which gave him more consistency. He defends very well, adjusts his feet like few others. And he only does this because he has wonderful reading when the ball leaves the opponent’s racket”, he told the newspaper. Sheet.
Larri has accompanied Gustavo Kuerten, known as Guga, since he was 12 years old. It was with Passos as coach that the tennis player won his great titles. They had a falling out in 2005, before rekindling their partnership in 2006.
“Since I was little, I had to work a lot with Guga on this issue of energy, of not being tense when touching the ball. ‘Let’s just use 40% first’, he said. This is more natural with João. I had to do millions of exercises to adjust this with Guga, shorten the swing [amplitude do movimento]. You can feel João connected with the ball all the time, that’s special about him”, he said.
According to Larri, there are similarities in their temperament. “The smile and the way of relating to the outside world are very similar. Both are charismatic, but without dazzling. And João carries something that Guga had: he doesn’t look down on anyone. He just wants to play.”
The analysis carried out by the experienced coach still takes place remotely. Because he lives in the United States, the gaucho was unable to watch a game by the new sports prodigy in situ.
For him, however, the defeat suffered by Argentine Mariano Navone in February last year, in the quarterfinals of the Rio Open, directly influenced the best moment of the young man’s career. On that occasion, even playing at home and being pushed by the fans, they allowed their rival to come back.
“When they told me about the defeat against Navone, I replied: ‘That’s good’. It’s a more psychological analysis because the Argentinean applied a ‘wind-up’ to him, he wasn’t ready. Then, I went to see a game at the Challenger in Asunción and noticed a level He took a 6-3 hit in the first set and adjusted his posture. He showed an unusual tactical vision. I said: ‘I loved it'”, he recalled.
Fonseca finished the tournament in Paraguay with runner-up, in a defeat to Brazilian Gustavo Heide. At the end of the year, in December, he triumphed at the Next Gen ATP Finals. This month, he won the Canberra Challenger.
“What I see as his biggest point is his mental aspect. I work with children and I always say: focus on the now. And it’s clear that João is experiencing this at 18 years old, it’s something unusual and fantastic”, he observed.
“This mental quality is what will help you the most in the future. Do you win games with a good forehand? You win. With a good serve? You win. But you can’t win without a strong mentality. In 2001, Guga saved a match point against the [Michael] Russell [nas oitavas de final de Roland Garros] because he was thinking about now, so he hit a ball on the line. John is never in the ‘f… himself’ for a point.”
For Larri, now, the young man will go “from hunter to being hunted”.
The promising start has already earned praise from names like Boris Becker, Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick, Novak Djokovic. In the match against Rublev, he scored the fastest forehand of the tournament, at least until that moment: 181 km/h.
“With Guga, after Roland Garros, after training in Montréal, the kids went after him. [tenista Thomas] Muster told me: ‘Be careful’. We didn’t change our strategy or our way. I took him away from parties, but he continued to eat popsicles with his friends,” said Passos.
“Competition needs to continue to be the ice cream [sorvete] him, you know? If you have your cell phone in your hand while you warm up, you are no longer stretching. But you can see in his eyes that he loves what he does.”
