The hype is real
João Fonseca and the future of men's tennis
Only 19, the Brazilian prodigy João Fonseca has just beaten Novak Djokovic from two sets down in a thrilling, nearly five-hour epic at Roland Garros. If you weren’t on the train before, get on it now.
The hype has been building for two years. With Paris still reverberating from Jannik Sinner’s early, unexpected exit, Djokovic had taken to court as the only former Grand Slam champion left in the draw. By nightfall on Friday, he was gone too. With Carlos Alcaraz missing, still nursing an injury to his wrist, the Fonseca generation—Jakub Mensik, Rafael Jódar and Fonseca himself—appear to have arrived.
Still, before his match against Djokovic, there were lingering doubts. Fonseca won the Next Gen ATP Finals in 2024, followed it up with two titles on the professional tour the next year, and finished last season in the top 30. But this year, plagued by a back injury, his rise has been more guarded. Barring a close loss to Sinner at Indian Wells, there hadn’t been a standout performance. His hype seemed somewhat upended, particularly after losing to the rising Jódar in Madrid.
Yet the noise around Fonseca has always been distinct. The whole of Brazil seems to turn up wherever he goes, converting tennis arenas into footballing cauldrons and bringing a carnival-like atmosphere that makes the sport richer. In the first two sets against Djokovic, though, the doubters seemed to have a point. The Serb was at his clinical best, barely making an error, and almost daring Fonseca to find another level.
In the remaining three sets, this is precisely what the Brazilian did. He had produced only 13 winners in the first two sets, but by the time he completed a high-octane 84-minute fourth set, he had 46 to his name.
What makes Fonseca genuinely different, not just promising-different, but potentially great-different, is his forehand. Few players have ever hit through Djokovic. Even Alcaraz and Sinner typically grind him, rally after rally, waiting for cracks to appear in the wall. Fonseca didn’t wait. He pounded. He summoned something akin to what Stan Wawrinka had in his prime: a willingness to go for more from the baseline on the biggest points, to generate pace, spin, and depth where others back off. When his forehand lands, there are few better sights in modern tennis — the whip and electricity it generates, the sound the ball makes off the racquet, are pleasures of their own. He also found a level on his serve he perhaps hadn’t counted on. “I felt like John Isner,” he said after the match.
At his best, Fonseca plays with a swagger, a panache that will bring with it not just Brazilian but global fandom. Djokovic may be 39, but this wasn’t a case of Fonseca ousting a flailing champion. The Serb hit nearly 70 winners, committed barely any unforced errors, and served with precision. But Fonseca left us spellbound. The standards he found and the pounding he gave his groundstrokes made for mesmerising, rousing viewing.
With the win, Fonseca became the first teenager to complete back-to-back comebacks from two sets down in 30 years of Grand Slam tennis. Wherever the hyperbole lands, it seems a real thing. He plays Casper Ruud later today. It’s one of the stiffer tests on clay. But whether he comes through it or not, the Djokovic match has told us enough.