As if the blistering forehand, the all-out athleticism, weren’t enough, opponents often find themselves taking on the crowd, too, when they face Joao Fonseca, regardless of the venue.
The 18-year-old wunderkind from Rio de Janeiro, who in his first full year on the tour has already played his way into the Top 50 in the ATP Rankings, regularly packs the stands with a vociferous, decidedly pro-Brazilian crowd when he steps on the court. Take the Miami Open in March: It was all his second-round foe, Alex de Minaur, could do to concentrate on the task at hand given the fervor of Fonseca’s supporters.
After eking out a tight 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 win, De Minaur scrawled ‘Rio Open’ across the courtside camera lens, an impish nod to the raucous atmosphere inside Hard Rock Stadium. The Aussie would call it “possibly the loudest atmosphere I’ve ever played in.”
“I felt [like I was] really in Brazil,” said Fonseca, who stirs a Federer-like frenzy seemingly wherever he goes.
De Minaur was on point. Fonseca, after all, grew up just 10 minutes away from the site of the Rio Open, the annual ATP 500 event. The former Next Gen ATP Finals champ remembers watching one of his childhood idols, Rafael Nadal, battle it out on the clay from his front-row seat at the Jockey Club Brasileiro. The 22-time major singles titlist Nadal left quite an impression on the budding young talent.
“Just his hard work, the way that he really enjoyed playing tennis,” Fonseca said of the Spaniard. “His posture on and off the court. The way he treated people, the way he treated his opponents. It was really nice to have him in this sport, and for him to introduce the sport to kids.”
First Top 10 Win
In January, Fonseca notched the biggest win of his nascent career when, as a qualifier, he toppled Andrey Rublev, 7-6(1), 6-3, 7-6(5), in the Australian Open first round, becoming the youngest man ever to defeat a Top 10 player in Melbourne. The following month, he would capture his maiden ATP title in Buenos Aires, the youngest South American tour-level champion since Guillermo Perez Roldan in 1987, and youngest Brazilian champion in the Open Era.
What impresses most, even beyond the world-class weaponry, is how Fonseca the teenager is handling the hype.
“Joao’s got a lot of eyeballs on him, a young player coming through, causing a lot of noise,” said Brit Jack Draper, himself carrying the weight of a nation in his homeland.
School’s still in session
After consecutive third-round appearances at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, Fonseca, mentored by longtime coach Guilherme Teixeira, knows there’s still plenty to learn when it comes to breaking through on the biggest stages in the sport.
“For sure, a lot of lessons,” agreed the 6-foot-2 baseliner. “When you go to a Grand Slam, the players play differently. They are much more focused. It’s a five-set match, and anything can happen. You can be two sets up and then you can still lose the match, so you need to stay focused all the time.”
US Open main-draw debut
More ‘firsts’ await Fonseca as he heads into the meat of the North American summer hard-court campaign, including his first main-draw appearance at the US Open and his Laver Cup debut in San Francisco.
“It’s going to be my first time in Cincinnati and Toronto, so it’s going to be, for sure, very nice,” he said. “Hopefully, there are going to be some Brazilians there watching and supporting me. I know for sure they’re going to be in New York.”
You can bank on that.
