PARIS – Joao Fonseca’s season had been so barren and gruelling that the Brazilian will likely remember for a long time what he achieved on this sweltering Wednesday in Paris: coming back from two sets down with a performance that combined equal parts head and heart to reach the third round of Roland Garros and set up a clash with Novak Djokovic, the most successful tennis player of all time.
Under normal circumstances, the Croatian Dino Prizmic, aged 20 and ranked 72nd in the world, should not be an opponent that Fonseca, ranked 30th, fears. But the Brazilian’s 2026 season is many things, except normal: Fonseca is feeling the mounting pressure on him in his home country, the need “to win everything”, as his compatriot, doubles player Marcelo Demoliner, explained to CLAY.
Thus, Fonseca’s 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 and 6-2 victory over Prizmic, as the tournament’s 28th seed, is a milestone in his 2026 campaign, perhaps a turning point. It would be illogical to expect him to defeat Djokovic, but it was equally illogical for him to lose to the Croatian.
Court 14, at the far end of the Roland Garros complex, was packed, with hundreds of Brazilians singing and cheering on their player, but also a good number of Balkan fans backing Prizmic. Many of them arrived covered in a thin film of water after passing through the nearby misting showers on yet another day of extreme temperatures in Europe.
Prizmic plays all or nothing, with shots that aim not for subtlety but to smash the ball. For two sets, Fonseca couldn’t find a way past the Croatian, until one point changed everything.
It was the second point of the fourth game of the third set, and Fonseca was determined to win it, but not just any old way: the Brazilian threaded a backhand slice with sidespin, a topspin backhand and a furious forehand down the line to win the point.
It was Fonseca’s resurgence, because shortly afterwards Prizmic hit a forehand wide with the Brazilian already beaten. He tried to hit it with all the power his racket would allow and ended up losing the point, the game and the set. And ultimately, the match.
At the end, whilst the crowd continued to cheer him on from the stands, Fonseca buried his face in a towel and let his emotions run free: he had won much more than just a match.
Djokovic is well aware of the difficulty of Friday’s challenge: “His potential and quality as a player are obvious, there’s no doubt about that, and he has a Brazilian following wherever he goes. He’s a player for the big stage; he loves the big occasions, the night sessions.”
