It was a crucial point in the final of the Basel Tournament. João Fonseca was winning 6/3 and 5/3 and had a match point against the Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. The 19-year-old from Rio should be nervous, but in the TV footage he clearly appears breathing deeply and deliberately.
Fonseca lost the point, but he didn’t lose his cool. Minutes later, he closed the decisive set at 6/4 and won the first ATP 500 of his career.
This Tuesday (28), he will debut at the Masters 1000 in Paris, at around 12:30 pm local time (8:30 am in Brasília), under a new pressure, that of maintaining the level of good performances in Switzerland — the duel will be broadcast on ESPN 2 and Disney+. His opponent will be Canadian Denis Shapovalov – in Basel, the Brazilian defeated him in the quarterfinals.
“I started creating a routine of meditation, breathing. And currently, before every game, I try to do breathing to keep myself calmer. Then I do meditations”, explained Fonseca to Folha during the Davis Cup match against France, in February.
When he was a child, Fonseca didn’t care much about meditation, which he discovered by accompanying his father, Christiano (known as Crico), to yoga classes with master Orlando Cani, in Rio de Janeiro. In more than half a century of activity, Cani has worked, among others, with Rickson Gracie, jiu-jitsu star.
“I’ve known him since I was young, but I’ve never been that interested,” admitted Fonseca. “As I grew more in tennis, having more difficult matches, where I felt a little more pressure, I started doing it. I started taking more classes with him when I was in Rio. It’s really good to have this type of meditation, it has helped me a lot lately.”
Fonseca arrived in Paris by train this Monday (27), coming from Basel. He recognized that turning the key, after Sunday’s victory (26), requires effort. “A very big mental change. Different mindset. But happy to be in this tournament.”
Until Monday afternoon, he hadn’t even had time to fulfill his promise to clip his curls in the event of a title during the current tournament tour of Europe.
“We tried to sleep early yesterday, we weren’t able to celebrate that much, although I managed to have a little dinner with my family,” he said at the La Défense arena, the swimming venue at the 2024 Olympic Games and the tournament’s new venue. Until last year, the Paris Masters 1000 took place at the Bercy Arena (gymnastics venue at the same Games), a venue considered small.
Now number 28 in the world rankings, the best position of his career, the Brazilian said he tolerated stressful moments well.
“I think I showed a good level of tennis. It was a huge opportunity to win this tournament. I took the opportunities I had. In the second round, my opponent ended up withdrawing [o tcheco Jakub Mensik nem entrou em quadra]. And, in the third round, also [o canadense Shapovalov deixou o jogo no terceiro set]. Very tough semi-final [contra o espanhol Jaume Munar]very harsh ending too. There was a lot of pressure, but we managed to face it.”
