João Fonseca, 19, started his season on European grass badly. After being eliminated in the first round in Halle, Germany, however, he got lucky at the ATP 250 in Eastbourne, England, the last tournament before Wimbledon.
The Rio native will start in the second round of the tournament (he is seeded number 2) and will face an opponent who will leave the qualifiers (qualifying, a kind of “sieve” for poorly ranked tennis players).
The definition of this opponent for the Brazilian should come out on Sunday. Fonseca could debut on Tuesday or Wednesday (still to be defined).
The loss on grass at the ATP 500 in Halle to the German Yannick Hanfmann (59th) last Tuesday (16th) and the victories of rivals in their matches will make the Rio native fall in the world rankings, which will be released next Monday.
He started the week in 25th position in the rankings and is trying, until the end of Wimbledon, to reach his best position. To date, its peak has been 24th.
Despite having no points to defend in Halle, it is already certain that Fonseca will drop at least two positions before playing in Eastbourne and will no longer be the best South American in the rankings (he will be overtaken by Argentine Francisco Cerundolo).
The good news is that he is already guaranteed the points he won in 2025 in Eastbourne, when he fell in the second round.
Wimbledon, the third Grand Slam of the season, starts on June 29. Last year, Fonseca was eliminated in the third round.
The Brazilian is coming off a great result in the last Grand Slam, Roland Garros.
On French clay, he reached the quarterfinals and, along the way, eliminated Serbian Novak Djokovic, the biggest winner of Grand Slams in the history of men’s tennis, with 24 wins, and Norwegian Casper Ruud, who was once second in the rankings.
It fell to Czech Jakub Mensik. He gained 400 points in the ATP rankings for the campaign.
