Rennae Stubbs identifies the two areas of Joao Fonseca’s game which still need to improve

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Joao Fonseca continues to impress on the ATP Tour, but there is still work to be done…

The Brazilian star won the biggest title of his career last time out, when Fonseca emerged victorious at the Swiss Indoors.

With the win, Fonseca shot up to 28th in the world rankings, as he continues his charge towards the top of men’s tennis.

Things are only going to get more difficult from here on, however, as Fonseca will need to take his game to another level if he wants to challenge the ATP top 10.

Former doubles star Rennae Stubbs has now weighed in with her thoughts on how Fonseca can improve.

Rennae Stubbs tells Joao Fonseca to improve his serve and backhand

During the latest episode of the ‘Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast’, the 54-year-old highlighted the two areas of Fonseca’s game that could do with some work.

“How good can he get? Much, much better,” she said.

“I think he can improve on his serve. I don’t love his service motion. I think it’s sort of abbreviated.

“And you can say it is what it is. But no, because look at Jannik Sinner, what he did a couple of years ago. Thanks to Darren Cahill, he really emphasised the step up with the foot.

“You can change your service motion, especially when you are that age, and I would like to see him get a bit more wrist snap and get more on his serve.

“He is not the biggest guy, so it’s not going to be as easy for him as a guy like Jannik Sinner to get that explosiveness and quick wrist snap and leg drive into the ball and just get five to eight more miles per hour on the ball.

“I do think his backhand can get even better.”

Stubbs knows Fonseca is far from the finished product, but has been impressed by the 19-year-old so far.

“Very, very, very good! His forehand is massive,” she said.

“The thing I love about him, very much like Carlos Alcaraz, and I guess Novak [Djokovic] and Jannik in some ways, is his ability to move forward. He has fabulous volleys. His forehand volley, and I always judge a volleyer by their forehand volley, because it’s not as natural as a backhand volley, but his forehand volley and volleys in general are excellent.

“He hit a couple of really big ones on big points in that final, and I think for him that layering and layering is only going to get better. At 19, he has about three or four years to develop his serve and backhand, and variety.

“He hits a beautiful drop shot. It’s amazing to me, after watching these guys play, how much they implement the drop shot in the points now because all these players are so good on the baseline and so good with the ground strokes, that they have to have variety.”

The Australian proceeded to give her assessment of Fonseca’s 2025 campaign, which, for some, failed to live up to expectations.

“I think his upside is huge. I think he will have learned a lot this year, and he hasn’t had a ‘great’ year for what we expected, the way he started the year when he smoked [Andrey] Rublev at the Australian Open,” said Stubbs.

“He had a very good year for someone at 19, but when you think about Carlos Alcaraz, he had already won the US Open by 19.

“But I love his attitude. The crowd loves him. His forehand is massive. I think he has to improve on the depth of his backhand. I love his slice, and he has the variety to move in.

“So tons of upside. Sinner and Alcaraz are so heads and shoulders above everyone else, but I think Joao Fonseca can get there to really push those guys.”

Stubbs believes Fonseca can one day challenge the likes of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, but how did the Spaniard and Italian perform in their first full season on tour?

Comparing Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Joao Fonseca after one full year on tour

The trio came on to the tour at different ages, but after one full year, Fonseca was the only player to win multiple ATP titles.

Both Sinner and Alcaraz made their top-ten debuts a year later, something Fonseca will be looking to achieve in 2026.

Only time will tell how Fonseca’s career will compare to Sinner’s and Alcaraz’s when all is said and done, but it’ll certainly be interesting to watch.