Why Brazilian teenager Joao Fonseca is a rising star of world tennis and a crowd favourite

Wearing green and yellow jerseys and often carrying the national flag, passionate Brazilian fans routinely line up for hours before Fonseca’s matches to ensure they fill the stands.

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Incredibly, the partisan French crowd chanted “Allez!” They suppressed their screams. Fonseca defeated local player Pierre Hugues-Herbert in straight sets in the second round at Roland-Garros last year. The traveling support circus accompanying the former world junior number 1 is already well known on tour.

However, actor Fonseca also has many important aspects.

Retired Brazilian player Andre Sa, who is ranked in the top 20 in doubles and top 60 in singles, calls Fonseca “the real deal.”

These days, Sa is Tennis Australia’s player liaison, but spent three years at Team Fonseca assisting the young star’s coach, Guilherme Teixeira.

“He is the total package: a great player on the field, a great person off the field, a great family, good natured, speaks multiple languages ​​and his charisma is off the charts,” Sa said. “If he starts winning more matches he’ll be a real rock star.”

Fonseca is attracting the attention of all the right people, from Carlos Alcaraz to Jannik Sinner to Novak Djokovic.

All three superstars spoke glowingly about him; “We will soon put Joao Fonseca’s name on the list of the best players in the world,” Alcaraz said this time last year. Sinner correctly predicted Fonseca would finish in the top 30 last year.

“It meant a lot when they said that, and it still means a lot,” Fonseca said.

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“I got to know Carlos very early in my career as a professional player because I was his successful partner in some tournaments and also trained with Sinner twice at the ATP finals in 2023. They are fantastic players and on a different level than other players on the tour.

“I hope I can compete with them in the future. Of course, it’s a distant goal, but it seems possible. What I can say is that I’m working very hard to be there.”

Alcaraz and Sinner have teamed up to win the last eight grand slam titles and have competed against each other in the last three grand finals.

With Djokovic in the final stages of his unique career, the tour is crying out for new talent to challenge the Alcaraz-Sinner duo.

Fonseca, the 2023 US Open men’s champion, is leading the charge. But other candidates also emerge.

Czech Republic Jakub Mensik (ranked 18th), Americans Learner Tien (26th), Alex Michelsen (37th) and Ethan Quinn (76th), French Arthur Fils (41st) and Peruvian Ignacio Buse (100th) are 21 and under.

But the youth movement does not end there.

Four other junior world No.1s aged 20 and under – Belgium’s Alexander Blockx (115), Norway’s Nicolai Budkov Kjaer (135), Spaniard Martin Landaluce (146) and Japan’s Rei Sakamoto (200) – are also showing great signs. Germany’s Alex Engel (180) and Rafael Jodar (165) are only 18 and 19 years old respectively.

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“[Buse’s] He’s a great guy, a very hardworking person. He will jump into big tournaments quickly,” Fonseca said.

“Kjaer won Wimbledon [juniors] We played good matches in the New Generation finals last year. Landaluce and Jodar also have great potential and I played in youth at Blockx; he is very good. All of these guys will break into the top 100 quickly. The new generation of tennis is in safe hands.”

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