Joao Fonseca is incredibly talented and his rise in recent months has been truly impressive. The young Brazilian ace won the Next Gen ATP Finals in Saudi Arabia late last year, before winning the Canberra Challenger in early 2025 sending more signals to the world.
Fonseca then passed the qualifiers of the 2025 Australian Open without losing a single set and his performance against Andrey Rublev in the first round left everyone speechless. The Russian is not going through the best moment of his career, but the way he was dominated by Joao was frankly difficult to speculate.
The Brazilian won in three sets and put more than 50 winners on the scoresheet, with some solutions that left the player from Moscow still and helpless. Fonseca's name has gone around the world in the last few hours, everyone has talked about his potential and the real possibility that he will undermine Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz in the future.
Truly impressive
All this pressure probably affected Joao's mind, who did not repeat the same performance against Lorenzo Sonego losing in five sets in the second round. Fonseca is still very young and needs more time to become a top player, although his level is already very high and suggests a very bright future.
Novak Djokovic and Carlitos Alcaraz have often had beautiful words for him in recent days and have predicted great things for his future.
Speaking on Eurosport, even American legend John McEnroe admitted that he was surprised by the level of the Brazilian talent: This guy made Rublev look like he wasnt hitting a big ball. Hes totally composed, and hes physically at 18 years old he looks as strong as an ox already. Mentally, he looks really tough.
Hes hit the hardest forehand in the tournament already, so we dont have to worry about that. He hit a couple of sweet two-handers. When I look at him, I look at the next Carlos Alcaraz. I cant believe how good this guy is already.
