MELBOURNE – Joao Fonseca has not had an easy time with his back since arriving in Australia. Still, his lower-back issues are already teaching him a valuable lesson at the start of the season.
“It’s bad not to have been able to play tournaments before the Australian Open, but I try to see the positive side: I realised it was good to understand my body better, especially now, at the beginning of my career,” the Brazilian sain in conversation with CLAY and L’Équipe.
“Sometimes, when you’re injured, there’s no point in taking risks and possibly making things worse. You have to learn when to play and when not to. These first weeks of the season were special because I stopped and reflected on that,” said the 19-year-old.
Fonseca said he is feeling better ahead of his fifth Grand Slam appearance. In Melbourne, he will face North American Eliot Spizzirri and, despite arriving without any official matches after withdrawing from the ATP 250 events in Brisbane and Adelaide, he completed solid training sessions at Melbourne Park. “I’m getting stronger,” he said.
The reigning champion in Buenos Aires and Basel recently revealed that he was born with a back condition. “There are days when I feel more pain than others. I already suffered a stress fracture five years ago, but I’m aware this is something that will always be part of my day-to-day life, so I have to learn to live with it,” he explained.
His goals at the first major of the season?
“To play my tennis, do what I practise every day and try to achieve good results by winning solid matches,” Fonseca said.
Roger Federer, however, would like to hear something more ambitious.
“I feel that anyone in the draw should come here and say: I want to win the Australian Open. I hope Joao has that mindset, to be honest,” the former world No. 1 said on Thursday in Melbourne, before praising the South American’s tennis and personality.
Fonseca still finds it surreal that his biggest idol speaks about him.
“It’s always great when your idol says good things about you. Even the fact that he knows who I am is unreal. It keeps me motivated to keep going. I’ve already met him and spent time with him, but still, when I’m in the locker room and he walks past, I get nervous. My hands shake because… it’s Roger!” he admitted.
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“I know what people are saying. I hear it, I read it: ‘Will he be the next Sinner or Alcaraz?’” he said in an interview with The Guardian.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. It’s unpredictable. But I’m working very hard for it and only thinking about what I need to do to get there.”
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