18-Year-Old Prodigy Fonseca Produces God-Like Level To Stun Rublev At Australian Open
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Joao Fonseca introduced himself on the biggest stage, stunning Andrey Rublev at the 2025 Australian Open.
Joao Fonseca is here. And he's here with a bang. The 18-year-old Brazilian is known to the most knowledgeable tennis fans, as he's been making headlines with his tennis for a few months already.
But as an 18-year-old player, he had to start at the lower tiers of professional tennis, and he quickly built his way up the rankings. Only a few weeks ago, he won the 2024 Next Gen ATP Finals, and a couple of weeks after that, he also triumphed at the ATP Challenger event in Canberra.
After his win at the Next Gen ATP Finals, he said he wanted to become the World No. 1 player, and he certainly backed up his words in his first-round match at the 2025 Australian Open.
He had to go through the qualifying to reach the main draw, but he beat all of his opponents without too many issues. Thanks to that, he entered the main draw on a 13-match winning streak, and probably every player who had a "qualifier" next to their line in the draw was scared before the qualifiers were allocated to the spots in the draw.
Fonseca's name, to the delight of many tennis fans, landed next to Andrey Rublev's name. That immediately created a first-round blockbuster, as the 18-year-old prodigy got to play against the ninth seed.
In the first set of this match, which was the last match of the day at the Margaret Court Arena, both players served exceptionally. Rublev had the only break point when leading 4-3, but he couldn't use it, so a tie-break decided the first set.
Fonseca played an absolutely incredible tie-break, dominating Rublev in every rally. That was underlined by his incredible forehand return winner, which converted his first set point to win the tie-break 7-1.
In the second set, the Brazilian teenager was able to start the set by breaking his opponent's serve, and almost in no time, he led already 3-0, hitting every corner on the court with his incredibly powerful forehand.
Nothing could stop Fonseca from winning the second set. He won it 6-3, increasing his lead in the match to 2-0 already. At the start of the third set, he continued to bully his opponent with his forehand.
Rublev is usually the player who blows others off the court with his power, but this time, he was on the receiving end. Still, he finally broke Fonseca's serve, leading 3-1 in the third set.
Unfortunately for the Russian, he couldn't hold that lead for too long, and the third set was decided in a tie-break as well. Fonseca didn't let the win slip away from him, as he won the match 7-6(1), 6-3, 7-6(5), reaching the second round of the 2025 Australian Open.
After the match, he also showed his humble nature. He was asked about his incredible talent but said that talent is not enough to succeed, quoting Roger Federer, who he knows well, as Fonseca is sponsored by a brand the Swiss Maestro co-owns "On."
"Like Roger says… talent isn’t enough. So I put a lot of hard work. Me and my team know that."
In the second round, the 18-year-old Brazilian will play against Lorenzo Sonego, who beat Stan Wawrinka in the first round. Fonseca beat Sonego last year in Bucharest 7-6(5), 7-5.
