After announcing himself on the world stage at the Australian Open, Joao Fonseca is hungry for success on the ATP Tour.
The Brazilian successfully qualified for the first Grand Slam of the year on the back of a 13-match winning streak.
This included a run to the ATP Next Gen Finals title, and going through the Australian Open qualifiers without dropping a set.
Fonseca produced one of the finest main draw Grand Slam debuts to stun Andrey Rublev in round one, before losing a five-set epic to Lorenzo Sonego to bring his magical run to an end.
What is Joao Fonseca’s tennis dream now?
Fonseca is set for a promising career after showing what he is capable of at the start of the 2025 season.
The 18-year-old played with great poise and precision to comprehensively defeat Rublev at the Australian Open. He showed maturity beyond his years and the tennis world will certainly see more of him in the years to come.
As he gets set to embark on his tennis journey at the highest level, Fonseca outlined his goals over the next year and beyond.
“For sure it’s to play the big tournaments. It’s my dream to play the tour, like the real tour where the top 50 players play. The Masters, the ATP 500s, the 250s. I want to live playing this,” he told reporters after exiting the Australian Open.
“I’m excited to join the top 100, play the big tournaments, get my place in this environment, and keep working to go bigger, to have more and more ranking.
“Yeah, I think for me, for myself, for my opinion, the sky’s the limit. You need to work more and more to reach your dream, which is to become No. 1. So yeah, I think that’s it.”
Joao Fonseca falls short in Australian Open second round
There was plenty of buzz and excitement around Fonseca when he played Sonego in the Australian Open second round.
As they were against Rublev, his fellow Brazilians were out in full force to cheer him on, but this time the result was different.
Fonseca took the first on a tiebreak, before losing sets two and three. He was able to take the match into a decider, but it was Sonego who outlasted his far less experienced opponent to reach round three.
Explaining what contributed to his defeat, Fonseca said: “I think today the experience of Lorenzo got [the] better. It was one of the points that he won today. He has more experience in those matches.
“I think when you play five sets, the experience, it’s different… They know better when to [be] intense. There’s going to be ups and downs during the match.
“I won the first set really good, 7-6. Then two sets were really easy for him. I couldn’t play my best. Then after, I got a break in the fourth. The fifth was like 50/50. There were going to be ups and downs.
“I need to have more experience on this. I need to work more to stay mentally focused during the whole match and need to be prepared for this. I think that was the big difference to play a Grand Slam.”
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