{"id":146864,"date":"2025-05-31T13:14:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T13:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/146864\/"},"modified":"2025-05-31T13:14:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T13:14:16","slug":"im-the-next-tennis-superstar-who-was-discovered-by-yoga-teacher-and-beat-coco-gauff-and-emma-raducanu-to-stunning-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/146864\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m the next tennis superstar who was discovered by yoga teacher and beat Coco Gauff and Emma Raducanu to stunning record"},"content":{"rendered":"

Watch out Carlos Alcaraz, there’s a new young prodigy making waves in men’s tennis.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s been a little over a year since Joao Fonseca fully turned pro after a spell as the junior world no.1 and a US Open boys’ singles title win.<\/p>\n

\"Fonseca<\/a><\/p>\n

8<\/p>\n

Fonseca is a Grand Slam winner at junior levelCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

The Brazilian used to live next to the Rio de Janeiro Country Club and played on its clay courts with his mother Roberta as a youngster.<\/p>\n

Alongside judo and football, Fonseca also joined his father Christiano in\u00a0jiu-jitsu practice, where his athletic potential came to the fore.<\/p>\n

In an interview with the ATP, Christiano said<\/a>: “When he was two, we were like, ‘This boy is different.’<\/p>\n

“I remember that my yoga teacher came here and he started playing with the ball with Joao and he said to me, ‘This boy is different. <\/p>\n

READ MORE ON THE FRENCH OPEN<\/p>\n

“‘He has much more reflexes and coordination than the average.’ Very young, we knew he was different.”<\/p>\n

Fonseca made his ATP debut in February 2023 as a wildcard entry for the Rio Open, where he was beaten by Alex Molcan in the first round.<\/p>\n

Various other tournament appearances followed before his transition into proffesional tennis at the beginning of 2024.<\/p>\n

He reached qualifying for Wimbledon and the US Open but couldn’t make his Grand Slam main draw bow in either.<\/p>\n

But in December, he won the 2024 Next Generation ATP Finals, even though he was the lowest ranked player.<\/p>\n

Fonseca made his major debut at this year’s Australian Open and won in straight sets against ninth seed Andrey Rublev in the first round.<\/p>\n

\"Fonseca<\/a><\/p>\n

8<\/p>\n

Fonseca stunned Rublev on his senior debut at a major tournamentCredit: Getty\"He<\/a><\/p>\n

8<\/p>\n

He could be on course for plenty more ATP titles in the coming years<\/p>\n

Argentina Open glory in February saw him lift his first ATP title, and he became the youngest Brazilian player to win one in the Open Era.<\/p>\n

With such success coming within the span of a year, it’s no surprise that Fonseca’s popularity in world tennis increased.<\/p>\n

One way of measuring this is through social media, with the 18-year-old making history on Instagram just two months ago.<\/p>\n

Fonseca is the youngest tennis player ever to hit a million followers<\/a> on the site as per Tennis365, at the age of 18 years and seven months.<\/p>\n

Emma Raducanu reached the seven-figure mark in September 2021 when she was aged 18 years and ten months.<\/p>\n

Next is Alcaraz at 19-years-old in May 2022, with Coco Gauff hitting a million followers in September 2023 by an extra six months.<\/p>\n

\"Raducanu<\/a><\/p>\n

8<\/p>\n

Raducanu was the youngest player to hit a million followers before FonsecaCredit: Getty\"Alcaraz<\/a><\/p>\n

8<\/p>\n

Alcaraz also achieved the feat at a young ageCredit: Getty\"Gauff<\/a><\/p>\n

8<\/p>\n

Gauff is another player who boasts a huge following on social mediaCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Brazilian no.1 Fonseca is back amongst the Grand Slam action at this year’s French Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After a straight sets win over Hubert Hurkacz, victory against Pierre-Hugues Herbert sent him into his first major third round.<\/p>\n

Fifth seed Jack Draper is up next<\/a> in what will be just their second ever meeting on the tennis court.<\/p>\n

Draper won their first match at Indian Wells in March, doing so in the second round before going all the way in California.<\/p>\n

Court Simonne-Mathieu will host the clash on Saturday and whoever wins then faces one of Alexander Bublik and Henrique Rocha.<\/p>\n

Fourth round victors will then make their way into the quarter-finals and a step closer towards a Grand Slam title.<\/p>\n

\"Fonseca<\/a><\/p>\n

8<\/p>\n

Fonseca is already on his best ever run at a Grand SlamCredit: Getty\"But<\/a><\/p>\n

8<\/p>\n

But British star Draper could stop him in his tracksCredit: GettyCarlos Alcaraz FALLS on line judge after colliding with French Open advert board<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watch out Carlos Alcaraz, there’s a new young prodigy making waves in men’s tennis. It’s been a little…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[6359,6740,1070,5066,459,25761,63156,79,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-146864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-carlos-alcaraz","9":"tag-coco-gauff","10":"tag-emma-raducanu","11":"tag-french-open","12":"tag-instagram","13":"tag-joao-fonseca","14":"tag-record","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-tennis","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114602631092655957","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}