A promise of Brazilian tennis until last year, João Fonseca became a reality. It is to be expected that the 18-year-old will have fluctuations at this point in his career, but there seems to be no doubt about his talent or his mental capacity to deal with it.
If that wasn’t already clear, it was in the first round of the Australian Open. He had never played professionally in a match over five sets, he had never played in the main draw of a Grand Slam – the series that brings together the four main tournaments on the circuit –, he had never played a match on a court with a capacity for 7,500 people and he had never had faced a top 10 player in the world rankings. It was 3-0 against Russian Andrei Rublev.
“I simply enjoyed the moment in an incredible place,” he said, with a confident smile, with a safe distance from arrogance and dazzlement. João is so set for success that the victory over the ninth in the world rankings in his debut in a “major” championship was not even seen as a complete upset – people who understand a little about the sport, like Boris Becker, had predicted the result.
Such talent began to be honed when Fonseca, at the age of 12, began training at the Rio de Janeiro Country Club with Guilherme Teixeira, his coach to this day. After flirting with football and other sports, he decided to dedicate himself exclusively to tennis and progressed until he caught the attention of the sporting world with the 2023 US Open youth title, at the age of 17.
At that time, João was – and, in truth, still is – a developing teenager, with difficulties linked to the tough challenges of the circuit, especially in the physical aspect. Between good results and others not so much, there were standout moments, such as the campaign to the quarterfinals of the Rio Open, in February 2024.
The Rio native has already competed in the tournament wearing clothes from On, a sporting goods company that has historic star Roger Federer as one of its investors. The Swiss brand is selective and only has in its portfolio in this modality, in addition to Fonseca, the Polish Iga Swiatek, number two in the women’s ranking, and Ben Shelton, the main promise from the United States.
Federer’s name appears repeatedly in reports about João’s career, who even turned down a proposal from Team 8 – the company, specialized in managing athlete careers and sporting events, has the Swiss as one of its founders and partners. The boy continued to be represented by his parents, who accompanied him on the circuit and, with excellent financial conditions, also made it possible for the technical committee to travel, with a coach, physical trainer and physiotherapist, something rare for such a young tennis player.
“He’s the best 18-year-old tennis player in Brazil in history,” he told Sheet Fernando Meligeni, semifinalist at Roland Garros in 1999. “That doesn’t mean he’ll be better than this or that one, but today he’s the most prepared mentally, technically and tactically.”
The promise began to take on a clear reality at the turn of 2024 to 2025. Fonseca won the Next Gen ATP Finals in December, which brought together the eight best athletes under 20 years of the season in Saudi Arabia, and embarked for Australia. In Oceania, he won the Canberra Challenger and moved on to something bigger than the “challengers”, suitable for those still looking for a place in the sun.
The Brazilian, who cites Federer and Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten as his idols, survived the three rounds of the preliminary round without losing a service game and found himself in the main draw, in a clash with top 10 Andrei Rublev. With the aforementioned confident smile, he set the tournament record up to that point, with a right hand of 181 km/h.
After the triumph in straight sets, he heard on the court, in the official broadcast interview, a question that he considered “a little unfair”: “If I went to Brazil now to buy your talent, how much would it cost?”.
“As Roger says”, replied João, with the naturalness of someone who almost considers Federer to be a colleague, “talent doesn’t cut it”.
“It has to be hard work. I put in hard work.”
