Lengthy after the chants of his identify had died out, Joao Fonseca remained on the clay at Court docket 7.
Armed with a black marker and together with his match-worn baseball cap now on backwards, and immediately wanting like an 18-year-old once more after a match by which he appeared properly past his years, Fonseca posed for selfies with dozens of followers. He signed autographs — on tennis balls, hats, shirts, something that was put in entrance of him — for youngsters and adults. When he was performed with all of the followers on one facet of the courtroom, he made his approach to the opposite, seemingly set on reaching everybody who stayed.
He smiled extensively all through and seemed like a teen merely thrilled to be at his first French Open.
However his play throughout his first-round match on Tuesday instructed a distinct story. Throughout the conflict towards Hubert Hurkacz, the match’s No. 30 seed and a former Wimbledon semifinalist, Fonseca was dominant. He took management early — breaking Hurkacz within the third recreation of the opening set — and left little to likelihood from there.
In entrance of a vocal crowd packed into each accessible seat of the 1,500-capacity courtroom, with followers waving Brazilian flags and lining up on the highest railings and a whole bunch extra ready outdoors in hopes of glimpsing a peek, Fonseca proved why he is lengthy been thought of tennis’ subsequent famous person. He defeated Hurkacz 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 in simply an hour and 40 minutes.
Whereas Fonseca instructed reporters on Tuesday that merely reaching the second spherical was “only a dream come true,” his match towards Pierre-Hugues Herbert on Thursday will now be some of the coveted seats on the match this week. And each match Fonseca performs, each highlight-making shot and each victory over a top-ranked opponent, will solely proceed to propel the prodigious teenager to new heights of fame. However he sounded prepared for all of it.
“The expectations are going to return. Individuals are going to speak, evaluate [me] with different individuals, different gamers,” Fonseca stated after his win over Hurkacz. “For my mentality, it is simply good to be with good individuals that may assist me to stick with an excellent mentality that I want. I have to do one of the best that I can [to] enhance my routines, stick with good individuals, keep wholesome and never specializing in the expectations.
“I am managing to do very properly, however typically the stress goes to return. It is regular. You want to cope with it.”
FONSECANON 💥#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/tEBHbA3F2F
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) Could 27, 2025
Fonseca’s heroics for the Court docket 7 crowd on Tuesday have been nothing new for many who have adopted him on his temporary however thrilling journey on the tennis scene.
Fonseca formally put the world on discover in 2023 by profitable the US Open boys title after which claiming the world No. 1 junior rating the identical 12 months. He grew to become the primary Brazilian participant in historical past to finish the 12 months with the highest rating, drawing the eye of the game’s largest names. He was requested to attend the year-end ATP Finals as a hitting accomplice for the likes of Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev.
Simply three months later, Fonseca recorded his first win on the ATP Tour — a head-turning 6-0, 6-4 victory over the seventh-seeded Arthur Fils at Fonseca’s hometown Rio Open by which he had been attending as a fan since early childhood. He went on to succeed in the quarterfinals of the 500-level occasion, together with his matches all through the week drawing soccer-like crowds. His rating soared. Initially slated to play on the College of Virginia beginning within the fall of 2024, Fonseca determined to forego his collegiate eligibility and switch skilled.
The joy round him continued to construct.
Fonseca had been the primary man born in 2006 to win on tour, and he continued to rack up many different “youngest” distinctions because the season progressed.
He gained his first Challenger title in August — the youngest participant to win at that stage final season — and steadily continued his climb up the rankings. By the top of 2024 he was in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for the Subsequent Era ATP Finals, that includes the highest eight-ranked males 20 years and youthful. Fonseca was the youngest participant within the discipline, and the lowest-ranked at No. 145. He gained.
Whereas few others had any doubt, the win was validating for Fonseca.
“It was tremendous essential for me to see that I am on the suitable path,” Fonseca later instructed ESPN. “To be taking part in towards the highest eight finest guys underneath 20, simply to see how good they’re, it was nice to have the ability to win the title and a brilliant cool expertise.”
And even his far-more established friends could not cover their admiration.
“I personally imagine it is only the start of him rising up within the rankings and displaying his precise true potential,” Stefanos Tsitsipas, the 2021 French Open finalist, instructed reporters on the United Cup the subsequent week. “I feel we will see massive issues from him within the subsequent few years.”
Fonseca made good on Tsitsipas’ declare simply weeks later. After profitable his three qualifying matches, Fonseca made his eagerly awaited main important draw debut on the Australian Open. In his first-round match, towards the No. 9 seed and 10-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist Andrey Rublev, Fonseca made positive his formal introduction to the tennis world was a memorable one with a 7-6 (1), 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory.
The gang — lots of whom have been carrying Brazilian soccer jerseys — roared in ovation following match level and he celebrated like a seasoned veteran. He later stated it was his first time taking part in in a “huuuuuge stadium.”
He misplaced his subsequent match in a five-set battle to Lorenzo Sonego however he cracked the highest 100 following his efficiency in Melbourne.
And his momentum did not cease there. In his subsequent match, Fonseca went from a prodigy brimming with potential to a star of the current with the primary ATP title of his burgeoning profession on the Argentina Open. He grew to become the youngest Brazilian participant in historical past to win on the tour and the fourth-youngest ATP participant to win a title on this century, behind solely Kei Nishikori, Rafael Nadal and Alcaraz.
Whereas Fonseca has at all times had massive objectives for himself, even he was shocked by simply how rapidly the outcomes had come.
“I hoped I might go this far, however not this quick,” Fonseca instructed ESPN whereas sitting within the participant’s lounge at Indian Wells just a few weeks later. “I used to be working laborious for this, however yeah, this has been quicker than [even] I might think about.”
Throughout Nadal’s press convention on Sunday following an on-court ceremony honoring him, the 14-time French Open champion was requested about only one present participant. It wasn’t Alcaraz or Iga Swiatek, the reigning champions who each have been in attendance on the ceremony, nor any of the opposite favorites to win the 2025 title, however as an alternative, Fonseca.
“He is a really younger participant that began his profession doing very, very properly,” Nadal stated. “He has an important future in entrance. I want him all the easiest. I met him a few instances. Looks like he has an excellent interplay together with his household and folks subsequent to him. He is very properly educated. I actually hope that he has an important future in entrance.”
And the query to Nadal was hardly an anomaly. It appears like each prime participant has been requested about Fonseca recently. Coco Gauff, herself a latest teenage phenom, proclaimed she’s been “on the Fonseca practice since early.” Alcaraz, one other fellow former teenager prodigy-turned-superstar, stated Fonseca’s “potential is large” and praised his “actually, actually excessive” stage.
Even Novak Djokovic, the 24-time main champion who was as soon as an up-and-coming star himself, has been impressed by what he is seen.
“He appears to be dealing with [the expectations and attention] very properly,” Djokovic stated. “I imply, I do not know him personally so properly, however from what I’ve seen on the courtroom, not solely the way in which he performs however the way in which he behaves, and folks round him, looks like there’s a excellent stage of stability and professionalism and devotion, like what we now have seen for the final couple years with Alcaraz. He has the potential to be actually a famous person of this recreation. Little doubt about it.”
For Fonseca, nonetheless simply 18, it has been surreal at instances to listen to gamers he is admired for a lot of his life know who he’s, not to mention communicate so extremely about him. He is nonetheless getting used to seeing gamers like Grigor Dimitrov and Alex de Minaur subsequent to him on the observe courtroom however admits typically all of it simply would not really feel actual. His matches have drawn big, usually near-capacity crowds across the globe, incessantly with hordes of passionate Brazilian followers, full with flags and yellow-and-green gear. The environment was so electrifying on the Miami Open, by which he reached the third spherical, Fonseca later remarked he felt like he “was in Brazil.”
On Tuesday, he estimated about “80% of the gang was Brazilian” on Court docket 7 — and referred to as it “tremendous good.”
He nonetheless cannot solely imagine it when somebody stops him to take an image, however it’s changing into extra regular to him with every match — and he is at all times comfortable to do it.
“Three years in the past, I used to be the child asking for the image,” Fonseca stated. “I do know what it means. It is a dream come true that folks are actually impressed by me.”
Regardless of the rising twister of enthusiasm round him, Fonseca and his household are attempting to maintain it as regular and relaxed as they’ll in the intervening time. Whereas companies like Roger Federer’s Team8 have famously tried to signal him, he is declined to have a proper agent for now. He as an alternative depends on his mother and father — his father Christiano is the founder and CEO of a Brazilian hedge fund — to play that position for him.
He introduced on Franco Davin, who guided Juan Martin del Potro to US Open victory in 2009, as a member of his staff earlier this spring, however Fonseca’s major coach remains to be Guilherme Teixeira, who he first met and began coaching with as a 12-year-old on the Rio de Janeiro Nation Membership. Fonseca’s inside circle is small and he likes it that approach. These round him preserve grounded and targeted on staying the course.
Like most younger gamers, particularly those that have already achieved a lot, Fonseca has massive goals for his profession. However he insists he is solely fascinated with the subsequent steps, understanding these might be what get him to his final objectives. Proper now he is targeted on making the principle draw for each main this season and enhancing his rating sufficient so he can play in as many Masters 1000-level and 500-level tournaments as doable.
He’ll have an opportunity to succeed in the third spherical at a Grand Slam for the primary time together with his subsequent match towards Herbert, a French journeyman practically twice his age, on Thursday. Tuesday’s victory will probably transfer him to a brand new career-high rating of round No. 57, and one other win would propel him simply outdoors the highest 50. Jack Draper, the No. 5 seed, or beloved Frenchman Gael Monfils would await within the Spherical of 32.
Fonseca admitted he has struggled at instances this spring with the burden of the exterior stress. He stated it made him really feel tense on the courtroom and took away a few of his enjoyment. However he says he is discovered a well beyond that and is now prepared to only recognize his time in Paris. Nonetheless lengthy it’s. And regardless of how many individuals are watching and projecting on what it means for his future.
“Now I am feeling very comfy,” Fonseca stated. “I am feeling very comfortable on courtroom. Completely satisfied and taking part in good.”
