Ever since he first picked up a tennis racket, João Fonseca has proven a penchant for power – even when it got here with blended outcomes.
“I was the kind of kid that destroyed the ball,” says Fonseca. “Sometimes, it would go into the fence; sometimes, it would go straight to the floor; and then, sometimes, we’re doing a winner.”
That strategy – fearless, livid and unrestrained – has stayed with the Brazilian into his skilled profession, and at present, his ripping forehand is considered one of the most breathtaking sights in males’s tennis.
Few gamers can match the 19-year-old Fonseca in relation to raw power, significantly on the forehand wing. This not-so-subtle, not-so-secret weapon has guided him to 2 ATP Tour titles this 12 months, together with in the Swiss metropolis of Basel final week.
There, Fonseca thumped 29 winners to see off Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the closing, whereas his common forehand velocity was clocked at 81 miles per hour. For comparability, high gamers usually average round 75.
“I think my coach was really the first one that said: ‘Keep with this aggression,’” Fonseca tells NCS Sports about his all-out strategy. “‘Keep doing this, but at the same time, let’s work with being extra strong.’
“During these last years, I understood that you can’t hit the ball hard every time … Sometimes, it’s a stupid idea, of course, but sometimes, it’s good to be aggressive, to be courageous and have confidence in your shots.”
Lifting the title in Basel noticed Fonseca develop into the third-youngest ATP 500 winner since the format was launched in 2009, as effectively as the event’s youngest winner since Jim Courier in 1989.
Still a youngster, Fonseca’s potential is large, his freakish power prone to develop into extra of a risk as he develops and refines his sport. To some, he is destined to affix Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner – by far and away the standout gamers in males’s tennis this 12 months – at the very high of the sport.
“The Brazilian Blaster (Fonseca) is a generational talent as I said 2 years ago and will be right there someday with the Italian Flamethrower (Sinner) and Spanish Magician (Alcaraz),” Rick Macci, the former coach to Serena Williams, wrote on X lately.
Those gamers, Macci added, will “create a new big three” to switch Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
Davidovich Fokina spoke alongside the similar strains throughout his runner-up speech in Basel, telling Fonseca that he is “for sure going to be the next Nole (Djokovic) to beat Carlos and Jannik.”
After successful final 12 months’s Next Gen ATP Finals title – a event that includes the world’s finest gamers below 20 – Fonseca turned heads at the Australian Open in January with a straight-sets victory over ninth seed Andrey Rublev.
He adopted that up by successful the Argentina Open a month later, changing into the second-youngest South American to win an ATP title in the Open Era.
But Fonseca’s progress hasn’t been exponential. He didn’t progress previous the third spherical of a grand slam this 12 months, maybe a shock after the huge promise he confirmed at the begin of the season.
The victory in Basel, nevertheless, reaffirmed his standing as considered one of the most explosive skills in the sport, with Fonseca climbing 18 spots up the rankings to No. 28. That places him effectively on observe to meet his self-ascribed targets for subsequent 12 months.
“I think one of my goals is to be a seed, top 32 (at a grand slam),” says Fonseca. “It’s my personal goal. I’m working a lot to do it … let’s see how it goes.”
To get to this stage, Fonseca needed to spend his adolescence constructing a bond with tennis. As a younger participant, the sport would make him really feel stressed, and he typically discovered himself chasing large, haymaking pictures on the courtroom. He was much more impatient off it, unable to look at a full match with out dropping curiosity.
That modified round 2019, when Fonseca sat absorbed as Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer in a Wimbledon closing lasting 4 hours and 57 minutes – the longest closing in the event’s historical past.
A self-proclaimed Federer superfan, that match harm Fonseca. As he began to take pleasure in tennis as a spectator, he would typically watch the “Big 3” play out match after memorable match on the sport’s largest levels, however it was the Swiss star who captivated him the most.
“He’s my idol,” Fonseca confesses. Which goes some technique to explaining why he immediately discovered himself a sweaty, nervous wreck earlier than assembly Federer for the first time in September.
“We had a nice chat, about 10 minutes, and we talked a little bit about life, tour, how it is to live in Brazil and be far from home,” says Fonseca, including: “He’s a brilliant good man. You see these superb gamers, these legends, as untouchable (and assume): this man is completely different. But no, he’s only a human being like us, tremendous cool.
“It was a very important moment; it’s going to be in my mind for my whole life.”
It’s possible that the two would possibly cross paths once more, significantly provided that Fonseca is sponsored by On – the sportswear firm wherein Federer has invested. The Brazilian was solely 16 when he was signed by On and earmarked as a star in the making, becoming a member of a roster that features six-time grand slam winner Iga Świątek and world No. 7 Ben Shelton.
Several years earlier, Fonseca had made the choice to focus his sporting endeavors solely on tennis, not lengthy after a soccer harm had left him sidelined for months.
Like most children rising up in Rio de Janeiro, soccer was, and nonetheless is, considered one of his nice loves, despite the fact that his enjoying days have lengthy since handed.
“I was a good level,” says Fonseca. “I’m a lefty leg, I had some skills, but nothing serious. I wouldn’t be professional or whatever. Fortunately, I stayed with tennis.”
After reaching the quarterfinals of final 12 months’s Rio Open aged 17, Fonseca determined to forego his school eligibility – he was holding a spot at the University of Virginia – and flip skilled.
Since then, his march up the world rankings has been regular, rapidly incomes him a military of devoted followers. Fonseca’s matches are a few of the loudest on tour, and no matter whether or not he’s enjoying in Brazil or additional afield, yellow-and-green-clad spectators are assured every time he’s on a tennis courtroom.
It’s taken time, Fonseca admits, to develop accustomed to enjoying in entrance of such raucous crowds.
“At the beginning, I was super nervous,” he says. “I wanted to win, and there are folks watching me, there are folks cheering for me. The tradition of Brazil is tremendous loud, lots of people supporting, I’ll say a bit of bit due to soccer.
“I bought used quite a bit to the crowd. Nowadays, I really like enjoying with the crowd. I really like them supporting me. I really like that typically I’m in a foul state of affairs in the match and they’re nonetheless supporting me, nonetheless cheering and motivating me.
“I was more like a shy guy,” he provides, “and now I’m loving it.”
Playing in loud matches at large tournaments is prone to be a mainstay of Fonseca’s profession. He is slowly accumulating extra expertise towards the world’s finest gamers however hasn’t but confronted Djokovic – he’s hopeful of doing so earlier than the Serb, now 38, retires – nor has he performed both Alcaraz or Sinner.
Those sorts of matches would possibly develop into an everyday incidence ought to Fonseca, armed with that ferocious forehand, proceed his march up the rankings. For now, he is watching carefully as two gamers just some years his senior rule over males’s tennis, sharing the previous eight grand slams equally between them.
One day, Fonseca may be able to problem their duopoly.
“What they’re doing is amazing,” he says of Alcaraz and Sinner. “They’re successful each event that they play.
“They motivate all the other players to put more work in day by day, and try to be with them, try to win more tournaments, try to win matches, be more consistent. Hopefully, in the future, I will be with them, playing and competing in finals. But one step at a time, and let’s put in the work.”