The biggest ATP (Professional Tennis Players Association) tournament in South America, the Rio Open begins this Monday (16) the main draw disputes with the fans waiting for João Fonseca’s first victory of the season, at the same time that the organizers are dealing —again— with weight absences.
The disputes will continue until February 22nd, when the final of the tournament is scheduled, with the confirmed presence of Andre Agassi, a former North American tennis player who will be responsible for presenting the trophy to the champion. The matches take place at the Jockey Club, in the south of Rio de Janeiro.
Coming from the best season of his career, Fonseca is looking to recover on the circuit after accumulating two defeats so far at the beginning of 2026.
He lost in the first round of the Australian Open to the American Eliot Spizzirri, and then fell to the Chilean Alejandro Tabilo at the ATP 250 in Buenos Aires, a tournament he had won in the last edition.
Due to the early fall in the capital of Argentina, Fonseca lost positions in the ATP rankings and is currently 38th in the world.
After ending 2025 in 24th place, the 19-year-old tennis player from Rio began the season facing physical difficulties that had been bothering him since the end of last year.
In October, after the Paris Masters 1000, he announced that he would no longer play in 2025, due to low back pain. In January, a new back injury forced him to withdraw from the preparatory tournaments in Adelaide and Brisbane.
“I was born with something in my back, and sometimes it gets stiffer, and yes, I already had a stress fracture five years ago, but it’s something that will be in my body, so I need to deal with it. I’m just trying to recover as best I can. We did an MRI, and it’s nothing too serious, but it could get serious,” he said after withdrawing from the tournaments in Australia.
In the last edition of the Rio Open, arriving in his hometown after winning the title in Buenos Aires, Fonseca frustrated the fans by being eliminated in his debut by Frenchman Alexandre Müller.
His best result on Jockey clay was in 2024, when he reached the quarterfinals, eliminated by Argentine Mariano Navone.
In addition to Fonseca, seed number 3, Brazil also has in the main draw João Lucas Reis from Pernambuco (207th in the ranking), 25, Gustavo Heide from São Paulo (257th), 23, and Guto Miguel from Goiás (1586th and 3rd in the youth ranking), just 16 years old.
Initially scheduled for qualifying, Heide ended up inheriting the place from Thiago Wild (197th), second best Brazilian who was injured during the contest in Buenos Aires, while Miguel took over from Frenchman Gael Monfils (former top 10 and currently 162nd in the ranking), who also withdrew due to medical problems.
The highest-ranked tennis player scheduled to play in the capital of Rio, the Italian Lorenzo Musetti, number 5 in the world, had also announced his withdrawal, due to an injury during the Australian Open.
With the absence of the top 5, the number 1 seed became Argentine Francisco Cerundolo, 19th in the world. Also confirmed are the Italian Luciano Darderi (22nd), seed number 2, and the Argentine Sebastián Báez (34th), seed number 4 and current two-time Rio Open champion.
This is not the first time that organizers have been forced to deal with last-minute absences.
In the last edition, Musetti himself, in addition to the Danish Holger Rune, also withdrew from playing citing injuries.
At the time, those responsible for the ATP 500 considered the possibility of changing the surface, moving from clay to hard courts, to try to attract more high-level players. The conversations, however, did not progress, at least for this year’s edition.
In doubles, Brazilian Rafael Matos (34th in the doubles ranking) returns in search of his third title.
After winning in 2024, alongside Colombian Nicolas Barrientos, and in 2025, with Marcelo Melo, Matos will compete in this year’s tournament with Orlando Luz (54th). The new partnership began recently, with the pair having already reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.
João Fonseca will also compete in the doubles, alongside Marcelo Melo (former ranking leader and current 55th in the world), owner of 40 titles, including Roland Garros (2015) and Wimbledon (2017).
The number 1 seeds are the Spanish Marcel Granollers and the Argentine Horacio Zeballos, 4th and 5th in the ranking, respectively. Rio Open champions in 2020, the duo comes from victories at Roland Garros and the US Open last season.
The organizers’ expectation is that around 70,000 people will pass through Jockey, generating R$200 million in the city’s economy, generating approximately 5,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Rio Open Champions
2014 – Rafael Nadal (ESP)
2015 – David Ferrer (ESP)
2016 – Pablo Cuevas (URU)
2017 – Dominic Thiem (AUT)
2018 – Diego Schwartzman (ARG)
2019 – Laslo Djere (SRB)
2020 – Cristian Garin (CHI)
2022 – Carlos Alcaraz (ESP)
2023 – Cameron Norrie (GBR)
2024 – Sebastian Baez (ARG)
2025 – Sebastian Baez (ARG)
