Semifinalist at this year’s US Open, Goiano Guto Miguel, 16, left his hometown, Goiânia (GO), at 14 years to professionalize his training. For eight months, he lived in family homes in Brasilia (DF), until his parents definitely moved to the capital of Brazil.
The bet has already yielded fruits. In 2025, two years after the change, Guto was in the top four in a youthful Grand Slam, reaching 13th position in the junior ranking. He is the only one born in 2009 in the top 40 of the list maintained by the International Tennis Federation (ITF).
Guto went to Brasilia to train with Kike Granjeiro and Santos Dumont at the Yacht Club. “In Goiânia, training was not very professional, you know? It was more amateur, I was going to play the tournaments,” he said.
In one of these championships, Granjeiro approached Guto’s father and invited the young man to train with him and Dumont in Brasilia. The idea at first was to spend two weeks a month in the Federal District and two in Goiânia, but the teenager ended up in Brasilia full time.
With the new city came the change in the rhythm of training. It’s about three hours in the morning and many in the afternoon. This includes the technical part and strength and mobility exercises.
The exception is Monday mornings, reserved for studies at an American online school. On other days, Guto needs to find between two and three hours to study.
The result in US Open already enables greater dreams. Being at the top 20 of the junior ranking allows direct entry into professional tournaments. The idea from now on is to merge these tournaments with the biggest junior competitions.
The goal is to pierce the top 1000 of the ATP ranking (Association of Professional Tenists). Today, Guto is the number 1,715, with two points in professional competitions, won in July. It takes 15 to achieve the goal.
At this stage, few points allow large jumps. An example is Nauhany Silva, another Brazilian promise, which climbed more than 400 positions in the WTA ranking (the Association of Professional Tennisers) by winning the first round at São Paulo Open last week.
The same can happen with Guto on Rio Open, which will be played in February 2026. There is a possibility that he get an invitation to attend the event, as he received Nauhany, Naná, in São Paulo.
Guto’s talent put him on the radar of those who have been following the tennis for some time. He has trained with big names in the sport, such as Danish Holger Rune, 11th in the ranking. He also participated in a week of activities at the Rafael Nadal Training Center in Spain.
In Brazil, there was a week of training with one of his career examples, the current 42nd of the ranking, João Fonseca. In common the two have the powerful right and the fact that they have emerged for the general public in the youthful US Open. Fonseca won the tournament in 2023.
“John is a very good guy, he is a worker. He gave me a lot of advice this week that we have gone along, and what he has been doing is very good for us too, right? Just follow and try to do the same as he is doing,” he said.
João Fonseca gave up on college in the United States to become a professional player in February last year, after reaching the quarterfinals of the Open River in 2024.
It seems that Guto will not have this problem. “Plan A and Plan B are becoming a professional,” he said. After that, the goal is simple: “being the best in the world.”
