Tennis fans have heard rumblings about 18-year-old Brazilian Joao Fonseca for a few years now but refused to get overly excited for obvious reasons.
They saw the likes of Borna Coric, Denis Shapovalov and Gael Monfils enter the senior circuit to a lot of hype, only to underwhelm. Those cases proved that there’s never a guarantee that a talented youngster will replicate their junior tour success on the ATP circuit.
Fonseca, though, may be worth getting excited about. On Sunday, he became the second-youngest player to win the ATP Next Gen Finals and just the third 18-year-old to win the event after Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. It just so happens the latter two dominated the senior circuit in 2024, splitting the four major titles among them.
