While tennis insiders and obsessives have been watching 18-year-old Brazilian player Joao Fonseca for months now—at least since he rolled his way through the Next Gen ATP Finals, taking the title at the end of last year—he didn’t start showing up on a wider radar until January, when he shocked eighth-ranked Andrey Rublev in straight sets during the Australian Open’s first round. He’s since won his first ATP title, in Buenos Aires (becoming the youngest South American to do so since 1990), and earned himself a wild-card entry to the BNP Paribas Open, otherwise known as Indian Wells, where he beat Britain’s Jacob Fearnley in a gutsy, three-set comeback, trading nuclear forehands and relying on his preternatural composure.
Up next for Fonseca? Another Brit—this time, 13th-seeded Jack Draper, whom you may have heard something about as well, on Saturday. Vogue recently chatted with Fonseca over Zoom as he rested at his parents’ home in Rio, where he still lives.
Vogue: You basically blew the mind of the tennis world in Australia. How did it feel for you? Were you as surprised as everybody else, or was this the way you saw things unfolding?
Joao Fonseca: Yeah, it was a great week—actually, it was a great month—winning Next Gen and Canberra, and then playing my first main draw at the Australia Open. It was the first of many things—first main draw, first win against a top-10 player, and then the first and then second rounds and a lot of expectations. But it was great one. I’m very proud of myself: the way that I played, the way that I fight. I’m excited for the rest of the season.
There’s been a lot of weight, a lot of attention, a lot of expectations put on you—everyone wants to talk to you, everyone is talking about you…and that’s great, right, but is it a weird thing to deal with? Has that gotten in your way at all?
It’s a lot of expectations. People are talking a lot, and it’s kind of a good thing. But this isn’t the only pressure on me: I already put pressure on myself, and I deal with this very well. I don’t stay very nervous about it. It’s something I try to use for an advantage—to use what people say about me to inspire me so I can do some great things in this sport. That’s what I’m trying to do. And, yeah, just trying to work, do my routines, and play my tennis.
