Passionate Brazilian fans, decked out in green and yellow and often carrying the national flag, routinely line up in large numbers for hours before Fonseca’s matches to ensure they fill the stands.
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Incredibly, they drowned out the shouts of “Allez!” from the partisan French crowd. when Fonseca swept local player Pierre Hugues-Herbert in straight sets in the second round of Roland-Garros last year. The traveling circus support, which accompanies the former world junior No. 1, is already well known on tour.
But Fonseca, the player, also has plenty of substance.
Retired Brazilian player Andre Sa, who reached the top 20 in doubles and top 60 in singles, calls Fonseca “the real deal.”
Sa is currently Tennis Australia’s head of player liaison, but spent three years at Fonseca’s team helping coach young star Guilherme Teixeira.
Brazilian fans follow Fonseca around the world in large numbers.Credit: Getty Images
“He’s the complete package: a great player on the court, a great person off the court, a great family, well-behaved, speaks multiple languages, and his charisma is off the charts,” Sa said. “If he starts winning more games, he’s going to be a proper rock star.”
Fonseca has the attention of all the right people, from Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic down.
All three superstars spoke highly of him, with Alcaraz saying this time last year that “we’re going to put Joao Fonseca’s name on the list of the best players in the world really soon”. Sinner accurately predicted Fonseca to finish in the top 30 last year.
“It meant a lot when they said it, and it still means a lot,” Fonseca said.
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“I got to know Carlos early in my career as a professional player because I was his hitting partner in some tournaments and I also trained with Sinner twice, for the ATP Finals in 2023. They are amazing players and on a different level than other players on the tour.”
“I hope to be able to compete with them in the future. It’s obviously a distant goal, but it seems possible. I can say that I’m working very hard to be there.”
Alcaraz and Sinner have won the last eight Grand Slam titles together and have faced each other in the last three major finals.
With Djokovic in the final stages of his unique career, the tour is calling for new talent to challenge the Alcaraz-Sinner duopoly.
Fonseca, the 2023 US Open boys champion, is leading that charge. But other candidates are emerging.
Czech Jakub Menšík (No. 18), Americans Learner Tien (26), Alex Michelsen (37) and Ethan Quinn (76), Frenchman Arthur Fils (41) and Peruvian Ignacio Buse (100) are 21 or under.
However, the youth movement does not end there.
Four other junior world number 1s aged 20 and under – Belgium’s Alexander Blockx (115), Norway’s Nicolai Budkov Kjaer (135), Spain’s Martin Landaluce (146) and Japan’s Rei Sakamoto (200) also show excellent marks. German Alex Engel (180) and Rafael Jodar (165) are only 18 and 19, respectively.
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“[Buse’s] great guy, very hardworking. He will quickly jump into the big tournaments,” said Fonseca.
“Kjaer won Wimbledon [juniors] last year and had some good matches in the Next Gen finals. Landaluce and Jodar also have a lot of potential and I’ve played juniors with Blockx – he’s very good. All these guys are going to be in the top 100 quickly. The new generation of tennis is in great hands.”
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