Joao Fonseca will continue to have high expectations of himself for the 2026 season as he looks to keep improving his ranking.
Fonseca won his first two ATP titles this year, highlighted by his most recent victory at the tournament in Basel.
This has enabled the teenager to climb into the top 30 of the ATP rankings, with Fonseca backed to challenge Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.
After Fonseca withdrew from his final tournament of 2025 it concluded his season, and now the former coach of Coco Gauff, Brad Gilbert, has made a ranking prediction for him next year.
Brad Gilbert predicts where he thinks Joao Fonseca will be ranked at the end of 2026
Many people including former world number one Jim Courier have predicted what Fonseca could be in 2026.
The aforementioned Gilbert, who coached Gauff to her first Grand Slam title, made a prediction for Fonseca’s year-end ranking at the end of the 2025 season.
In a resurfaced social media post from Gilbert on X (formerly known as Twitter), he backed the Brazilian to break into the top 25 of the ATP rankings this year.
After winning the ATP 500 title in Basel, Fonseca confirmed his rise from outside the top 140 to world number 24 all within the space of a year.
“When celebrating his correct prediction, Gilbert then made another for 2026 and backed Fonseca to improve on this even further next year.
He wrote, “Yep (thumbs up emoji) and good chance will be top 10 by this time next year.”
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Although he has made huge strides up the rankings this year, there are still some improvements that Fonseca needs to make if he wants to achieve Gilbert’s prediction.
Fonseca made a big impact at the Australian Open this year, where he beat Andrey Rublev in an emphatic first round performance, and he now has six weeks to prepare for the 2026 season.
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It has already been confirmed which two tournaments Fonseca will play to kick off his season, as he has entered two ATP 250 events in Australia.
Fonseca will begin his 2026 season at the Brisbane International, where Daniil Medvedev is also confirmed to be playing, before heading to Adelaide.
The Brisbane International gets underway on January 5, as Fonseca looks to continue as he left off from the 2025 season.
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