João Fonseca played a balanced game of three sets and 1h49 duration, but fell again against a top 10 tennis player in the ATP (Association) ranking in a duel for the quarterfinals of the ATP 500 in Munich against the American Ben Shelton.
In the first meeting between the two on the circuit, Shelton, 23 years old and number 6 in the ranking, beat the Brazilian, 19 years old and 35th, by two sets to one, with partials of 6/3, 3/6 and 6/3.
It was João’s sixth consecutive defeat to a tennis player who is among the top ten in the rankings.
So far, the Brazilian’s only victory was in his first encounter against a top 10 player, when he beat Russian Andrei Rublev, then ninth in the world, in the first round of the 2025 Australian Open Grand Slam.
Afterwards, he had setbacks against the British Jack Draper (then 5th in the world), in the third round of Roland Garros, and against the American Taylor Fritz (also 5th at the time), in the second round of the ATP 250 in Eastbourne, England.
In the 2026 season, he played a very even game against the Italian Jannik Sinner, then number two and current leader of the ranking, with both sets decided only in the ‘tie-break’, in a game valid for the round of 16 of the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells.
In his next appointment on the circuit, he faced the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, number one at the time and current runner-up, in the second round of the Masters 1000 in Miami, in a defeat by two sets to zero, with a double 6/4.
When he began his tour of tournaments played on clay, his greatest specialty, he reached the quarter-finals of the Masters 1000 in Monte Carlo, his best campaign in a tournament of this level, stopping against the German Alexander Zverev, number 3 in the world.
Due to this week’s campaign on German clay, João Fonseca appears momentarily in 30th place in the ATP rankings, a position that could still change depending on the tennis players’ performance in the rest of the week.
The best position he has achieved so far was number 24 in the world, in November 2025, after winning the ATP 500 in Basel, Switzerland.
