RIO DE JANEIRO
– The children crowd against the glass, open their eyes wide and ask enthusiastically, vociferously: ‘How’s Fonseca doing, how’s the game going?’.
It is Sunday 16th February 2025 in Rio de Janeiro, those children, dozens and dozens of them, are at the Jockey Club in the Brazilian city, the venue for the Rio Open, an ATP 500 which is the biggest tournament in South America. Almost 2,000 kilometres away, Joao Fonseca is playing the final of the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires, an electric, heated match in which he ends up defeating the Argentine Francisco Cerúndolo.
It is the first title for 18-year-old Fonseca on the ATP circuit and the start of a new era in Brazilian tennis. Those children who shout through the glass at the journalists, who can follow the final on television, are desperate to know how Fonseca is doing. Because they love tennis and because they all dream of being Fonseca.
The next day, Monday 17th February 2025, when Fonseca sets foot in the Jockey Club, everything changes. Hundreds of people crowd in front of the training courts, they raise their mobile phones and try to record, to capture at least a fleeting moment of a day in which they feel that something big is happening.
In Sao Paulo, on their way to their team’s match, hundreds of Palmeiras fans crowded around the television in a bar to follow the final in Buenos Aires.
Brazil, which has had great players such as Maria Esther Bueno and Gustavo Kuerten, is seeing its tennis revived. In the same week that Fonseca appeared at number 68 in the ATP rankings, two other players – Thiago Seyboth Wild and Thiago Monteiro – were among the top 100, something that had not happened for seven years.
The moment is reminiscent, albeit with obvious differences, of Kuerten’s dazzling appearance in 1997, when he won seven matches from nowhere to conquer Roland Garros, a tournament he would win twice more, in 2000 and 2001. That time, 28 years ago now, an improvised batucada paraded through the Roland Garros facilities, giving the Parisian tournament a very different atmosphere to the usual one.
Fonseca didn’t win Roland Garros, of course, just an ATP 250, although in one of the cities with the most passion and knowledge of tennis in the world. But the effect it generates, the power of the phenomenon, is reminiscent of Kuerten’s impact.
And the fact that he lost in his debut on the night of Tuesday 6-1 and 7-6 (7-4) to the Frenchman Alexandre Müller does not change anything: Fonseca was tired after an intense week in Buenos Aires and clearly tense about the responsibility of playing in front of his home crowd. A learning experience, which is what you have to do at the age of 18, when you have a whole career ahead of you.
“I knew that I was going to have to face up to nervousness and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t play the game, I couldn’t be my whole self on the court, my cheerful way, my happy way of playing, I couldn’t find those ways, I couldn’t play with the crowd. I think that was my frustration today. I couldn’t be myself on the court.”
‘Something big is clearly happening,’ said to CLAY Luiz Carvalho, director of the Rio Open tournament, a delightful event framed by the tropical hills and subtropical jungle of one of the most fascinating cities in the world.
‘It’s a unique moment for Brazilian tennis, a very special moment. We are seeing first-hand the birth of an idol, possibly a world idol.’
Carvalho is amazed by Fonseca’s maturity.
‘What impresses us most is the way he manages to deal with all this expectation about him. And to be calm, and happy and always laughing, with a very light energy. I was even talking to Sasha (Zverev) yesterday, who made a very interesting statement at his press conference, he said that a lot of pressure is being put on Fonseca. So I said to him, Sasha, you should talk to him about your experience, you’ve been through a lot of the same things, you also started winning things at a very young age, and I’m sure in Germany they put a lot of pressure on you too’.
It is very true that Fonseca needs nothing to secure his life, because there is plenty of money in his family. He could, then, be a slacker, levitate and wander through life. On the contrary, he is a sportsman at heart, someone who accepts and seeks sacrifice, someone with a passion for what he does and dreams of being a champion. It is not the norm, neither in tennis nor in life.
‘He’s a millionaire, his family has a lot of money, but he’s hungry, he’s keen, he’s disciplined and he’s very polite,’ a Jockey Club member who knows the family and follows the progress of the new Brazilian sports star told CLAY.
Christiano Fonseca Filho, known as ‘Crico’, is Joao’s father and founded ‘Inversionista Professional’ (IP), Brazil’s first independent asset management company, in 1988.
According to data from Anbima, the Brazilian association of managers, IP currently manages 2.5 billion reais (around 440 million dollars) in client funds. Christiano Fonseca pays for the training and equipment that supports the tennis player. who in 2024 decided to dedicate himself professionally to tennis instead of studying and trying to play at a university in the United States, as the sports newspaper ‘Lance’ recently highlighted.
Roberta Fonseca, Joao’s mother, gave her son the athletic genes, the newspaper adds. Roberta played on Flamengo’s junior volleyball team in the early 1980s and even played with former Brazilian national team star Dulce Thompson and Karin (bronze medallist at the 2000 Sydney Olympics). Today, Roberta continues to play volleyball at a high level in a team of veterans.
This combination of financial wisdom and sporting experience perhaps explains why Fonseca is much more mature than Roger Federer at his age, even than Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. He plays a hot tennis, with a devastating forehand and constant ambition, but he reasons with a cool head.
‘The other day I told the kids who asked me for autographs, ‘But you train with me in the mornings!’’ the carioca laughed this week, somewhat shocked by the number of messages and the people who wrote to him after he lifted the trophy in Buenos Aires, in a week in which he defeated four Argentines, quite a feat between two countries that have a great sporting rivalry.
‘It’s an honour. Players who are national and world idols. Neymar, Vinícius Júnior, Ronaldo… They are idols for me, people I considered untouchable. They congratulate me and they know who I am. It’s sensational. I think some children say that I am an idol for them and I say that two years ago I saw other people as idols, I was more of a fan. Many things have changed, as I said, and I’m very happy with everything that’s happening…’
From the centre court, Gustavo Kuerten can see the illuminated figure of Christ the Redeemer at night, symbol of Rio and Brazil, the ninth largest economy in the world. The view is impressive, and the future of the tournament is promising too.
‘Our phones haven’t stopped ringing, people want to come and see João play, people who probably weren’t interested in the sport before and now they are,’ says Carvalho, who is also amazed by the excitement of the youngest fans.
‘It’s one of the points we’re analysing. We don’t have the data yet, but this new generation, and I’m talking about João, but also (Jannik) Sinner and (Carlos) Alcaraz, have attracted more young people to the sport. Here at the club it’s visible because you see a lot of children. We’ve been doing this tournament for eleven years, and I’ve never seen so many children behind the players, not even when Nadal was playing.’
