They call it Fonsequismo. Those who follow it, and there are many, many of its disciples around Roland Garros, describe it either as a state of mind or a way of life.
You don’t just see it around Court Philippe Chatrier, you hear it and you feel it. The swathes of yellow shirts, the handheld fans in the colours of the Brazil flag, the singing of his name over and over and over again whenever teenage phenomenon Joao Fonseca takes to the court.
Fonseca Mania has taken over the French Open again. It will engulf Wimbledon next month. Even for his first Grand Slam in Melbourne last year, they queued around the block to watch him.
It’s always followed him around, the next great hope of a country that’s not produced a Slam champion since Gustavo ‘Guga’ Kuerten over 20 years ago, but now he is producing the tennis to show it’s all warranted.
The first teenager to beat Novak Djokovic at a Grand Slam, let alone only the second man to come down from two sets down to beat him. Then to follow it up by dispatching Casper Ruud, a three-time Grand Slam finalist, in four sets. The 19-year-old has been given the illustrious night match on Philippe Chatrier on Tuesday too against Jakub Mensik, such is the draw of this special boy.
Joao Fonseca takes on Jakub Mensik in the high-profile night slot on Wednesday
… and is sure to have plenty of fans decked out in Brazil gear cheering him on
His forehand sounds like a gunshot. Watching him hit that is worth the entrance fee alone.
‘Everyone has their own personality and their own shots, their own strength,’ says Fonseca. ‘I think my strength is power, going for the shots, playing aggressive. Since I was young I was playing like this.
‘Of course not with that consistency, but I always went for the shots. I love hitting winners. I always try to be me on court. Being me, sometimes I go crazy. Sometimes the ball goes to the fence. Sometimes I hit the ball in important moments and I lose.’
He’s showed no sign of that this week. And, for as much as his thunderous forehand is the weapon that catches the eye, it’s his all-rounded game that’s got him here, one that has improved considerably over the past year and got him to the verge of breaking into the world’s top 20.
He dragged Djokovic around Philippe Chatrier with drop shots, he strikes his backhand down the line to open up the court for his forehand. At Indian Well in March, he took Jannik Sinner to two tie-breaks. Not many do that, let alone 19-year-olds.
‘Everyone knows how good his forehand is,’ says Mats Wilander, who also knows what it takes to win at Roland Garros as a teenager having won his first of seven Slam titles here aged 17.
Novak Djokovic was gracious in defeat to Fonseca, who came from two sets down
‘His backhand is so good, so solid. And then he serves much better now and he makes a lot of decisions about coming to the net, hitting drop shots. You think of him as more of a baseline player, just hitting backhands and waiting for the forehand but he’s actually more than that which is unbelievable. For that age, it’s unbelievable. He’s the full package.’
Fonseca’s first love was football, kicking about on Copacabana beach. ‘Every Brazilian has dreams of becoming a soccer player,’ said Fonseca. In another life, then, he could be on his way to the United States as part of Carlo Ancelotti’s squad of the World Cup. He stands a better chance of victory here.
He spent his early days climbing and surfing with his dad, which helped to build his strength and balance around the court.
Fonseca is the first Brazilian to reach the quarter-finals here since Kuerten, who watched on from the stands of Philippe Chatrier on Sunday night.
He also stands alongside Rafael Jodar, who faces Alexander Zverev on Tuesday, as one of two teenage stars to have made the quarter-final, only the fifth pair of teens to reach this stage of a Grand Slam in the last 40 years. Neither of them show any signs of nerves, even if both of them have had to come through two five-setters.
‘They don’t feel any pressure,’ adds Wilander. ‘I didn’t. They’re teenagers, they don’t suffer, they don’t have consequences. They don’t put pressure on themselves, they don’t feel the pressure from the outside. None of them have the fear because they haven’t experienced the other side of the coin yet. There is need to worry about the consequences. It doesn’t matter for one second if he wins or loses.’
Spaniard Rafael Jodar is another teen star to make the quarter-finals in an exciting French Open
For Fonseca, it might be a little different. Jodar usually has Alcaraz to carry the expectation of his nation. Fonseca doesn’t. His entire country is all in on him.
‘I think it can be easier in some aspects if you’re not dwelling too much on it but I think there’s also a lot of pressure for some of these young guys, because there are expectations,’ said Michael Chang, another teenage Grand Slam champion here in 1989 aged 17. ‘That doesn’t necessarily give them the freedom to go out there and play.
‘When I was 17, nobody expected me to win. I had the freedom to be the underdog in just about every single match I played, for the most part, in the second week, so this tournament is a little bit different, but nonetheless it’s going to be fun to watch.’
He’s not wrong.
