If you were only looking at his quality and results, you could fool yourself into thinking that Joao Fonseca is your average guy sitting outside the top 30. And, in fact, he is ranked 32nd in the world. He also has several degrees from 2025. It’s hardly something that can be compared to, say, Rafael Nadal’s breakthrough year – when Nadal won 11 titles.
But make no mistake, there is no rating about Fonseca. You are a little thing we like to call a phenomenon.
What are you asking for? Well, to understand that, I have to set the stage for you. The first fact you need to know is that Fonseca is from Brazil. And Brazilians LOVE their professional athletes and follow them with fervent enthusiasm and fervor. But, in particular, there hasn’t been an original Brazilian star since the turn of the century – and that’s not an euphemism, either. Gustavo Kuerten, the sunniest player to ever set foot on a tennis court, was in his early prime. He bagged three French Open titles and won a place in the hearts of tennis fans around the world.
When Guga retired, he took the fame of Brazilian tennis with him…and it’s been 25 years looonggg. Enter Joao Fonseca. Now, there are some experts who are Fonseca skeptics (Fonsekptics? Skeptifons?). And in their defense, I have to admit that so far his popularity has outstripped his production. Still, this kid is nothing but a looker and SHOULD be taken seriously as a major draw.
He’s talented, personable, and has proven that he can command a crowd. Which leads me to an unexpected place – a respectful critique of the tournament organizers.
Last year, the Brazilian wunderkind played his first Miami Open. BAD organizers underestimated Fonseca’s popularity and arranged for him to be in the Grandstand instead of the main arena. Enthusiastic fans, all of whom were clearly anticipating the crowd situation with greater precision than the competition, arrived at the Grandstand hours before Fonseca took their seats in the general entrance court.
Then the Miami officials began a series of terrible events.
They moved Fonseca and Ugo Humbert to the stadium – perhaps to give more fans a chance to see him. The problem is that changing the much-anticipated game from a “stadium” arena to a ticketed court presents all kinds of problems:
1. Fans who took the schedule at face value burned through the day watching matches they may or may not have cared about.
2. A court change was announced during the match in the Grandstand before Fonseca, including Jack Draper and Jakub Mensik.
3. IMMEDIATELY the fans started booing and stormed out of the stadium, causing a huge delay in the game. NO WONDER it’s not fair to Mensik and Draper, who stood for more than five minutes while angry fans…expressed themselves.
4. People with stadium tickets do not always have stadium tickets.
5. Oops.
Don’t get me wrong, Miami was the first to experience the Fonseca Phenomenon, so it’s understandable (sort of) that they played poorly. But tournaments KEEP making the same mistake. The US Open also put Fonseca in the Grandstand instead of using the 145,152 seats at Ashe – a match I was lucky enough to get a seat at:
And now the Australian Open has put Fonseca and Eliot Spizzirri on the outer court. 1573 Arena – officially known as “Show Court 2” – has a seating capacity of 3,000 people. As a comparison, the Grandstand at the US Open has just over 8,000 seats. Fonseca was full of them all.
I’m not usually one to wag my finger, but come on. This time we all know that the fans will come from Fonseca. There is no reason to allow a circus into a town where a little anticipation can easily solve the situation.
