Winner Sinner
Hall of Fame
In South America and among the tennis fans of Generation Z, 'Fonsequismo' is raging, as the support for Joao Fonseca has been renamed, the Brazilian new rising star of the racket who on Sunday at the age of 18 years, 5 months and 26 days won his first ATP tournament in Buenos Aires, the seventh youngest tennis player to do so in the Open era. It is a widespread phenomenon on social media and even the Brazilian Olympic Committee celebrated it, writing on X "Fonsequismo ta' on", "the 'fonsequismo' lights up". The Copa America website wrote that "Fonsequismo is in fashion" and those of the US Open also paid homage to the champion from Rio de Janeiro.
The word has also entered the Anglophone lexicon as a synonym for cheering for the tennis player, supplanting the ancient meaning linked to the philosophical current that followed the Jesuit Pedro da Fonseca who was inspired by Aristotle. Fonseca, moreover, is his own phenomenon: his ball makes a different noise when it comes out of the racket. Different from that of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, but then it also travels faster than that of the two great rivals it is destined to challenge in the next decade. In one year he has gained 580 ranking positions (he has now reached 68th place) and is the youngest Brazilian ever to win a professional tournament.
It cannot be overlooked that the victory came in Argentina against an Argentinian, Francisco Cerundolo, number 26 in the world, after defeating two others: Coria and Navone. Cerundolo is a player of excellent level and good experience: the climate was one that can only be found in South America with a popular passion that often borders on boorish cheering that could have annihilated anyone. Not the young Joao, already champion of the Next Gen Finals last autumn, who chose a very particular moment to make everyone notice the brightness of his star: the one in which the number 1 in the world Sinner is stopped in the pits due to disqualification and will remain so until May 4th.
When he returns to the pitch, Jannik will know that he will have to face one more pretender to his throne and no longer a promising young man whose face, he who was born in Rio, has the same smile as that 'Guga' Kuerten whose ball traveled much less than his, but who has become an idol for Brazil on a par with Ayrton Senna and many football champions. Fonseca certainly doesn't hide behind a finger or behind his smile: he aims high, very high. "I want to become number 1" he said immediately after the triumph and we have to believe him. His tennis has rightly been defined as that of a Sinner 3.0: great mobility of legs, excellent timing, devastating forehand, clean and powerful backhand although it needs improvement, violent serve.
But above all an ability not to give in to emotions (he canceled out a matchpoint to another Argentinian, Mariano Navone, in the semi-final) which is very reminiscent of Sinner's. For an 18 year old boy it's not bad. There will still be work to be done on balls that reach the net or over the shoulder but if with these limitations Joao (who like Sinner was originally born as a ground player but on fast courts doesn't seem to experience any delay in the point of impact with the ball) has managed to score a 6-4 7-6 against Francisco Cerundolo in Buenos Aires it must mean something. Without forgetting that his physique, like Sinner's when he was his age, is still in the process of being formed and he could still gain a couple of centimeters in height.
The student from Texheira is an anointed of the Lord who is already similar to Sinner in another aspect: for decades an entire country had been waiting for the advent of a player-leader capable of reviving the glories of 'Guga', now 48 years old and three times winner of Roland Garros, and unleashing his passion. And the push of an entire country, as Sinner's growth demonstrates, can have sensational effects on the career of a young player, especially if he proves to have broad shoulders: and Fonseca has already succeeded.
The word has also entered the Anglophone lexicon as a synonym for cheering for the tennis player, supplanting the ancient meaning linked to the philosophical current that followed the Jesuit Pedro da Fonseca who was inspired by Aristotle. Fonseca, moreover, is his own phenomenon: his ball makes a different noise when it comes out of the racket. Different from that of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, but then it also travels faster than that of the two great rivals it is destined to challenge in the next decade. In one year he has gained 580 ranking positions (he has now reached 68th place) and is the youngest Brazilian ever to win a professional tournament.
It cannot be overlooked that the victory came in Argentina against an Argentinian, Francisco Cerundolo, number 26 in the world, after defeating two others: Coria and Navone. Cerundolo is a player of excellent level and good experience: the climate was one that can only be found in South America with a popular passion that often borders on boorish cheering that could have annihilated anyone. Not the young Joao, already champion of the Next Gen Finals last autumn, who chose a very particular moment to make everyone notice the brightness of his star: the one in which the number 1 in the world Sinner is stopped in the pits due to disqualification and will remain so until May 4th.
When he returns to the pitch, Jannik will know that he will have to face one more pretender to his throne and no longer a promising young man whose face, he who was born in Rio, has the same smile as that 'Guga' Kuerten whose ball traveled much less than his, but who has become an idol for Brazil on a par with Ayrton Senna and many football champions. Fonseca certainly doesn't hide behind a finger or behind his smile: he aims high, very high. "I want to become number 1" he said immediately after the triumph and we have to believe him. His tennis has rightly been defined as that of a Sinner 3.0: great mobility of legs, excellent timing, devastating forehand, clean and powerful backhand although it needs improvement, violent serve.
But above all an ability not to give in to emotions (he canceled out a matchpoint to another Argentinian, Mariano Navone, in the semi-final) which is very reminiscent of Sinner's. For an 18 year old boy it's not bad. There will still be work to be done on balls that reach the net or over the shoulder but if with these limitations Joao (who like Sinner was originally born as a ground player but on fast courts doesn't seem to experience any delay in the point of impact with the ball) has managed to score a 6-4 7-6 against Francisco Cerundolo in Buenos Aires it must mean something. Without forgetting that his physique, like Sinner's when he was his age, is still in the process of being formed and he could still gain a couple of centimeters in height.
The student from Texheira is an anointed of the Lord who is already similar to Sinner in another aspect: for decades an entire country had been waiting for the advent of a player-leader capable of reviving the glories of 'Guga', now 48 years old and three times winner of Roland Garros, and unleashing his passion. And the push of an entire country, as Sinner's growth demonstrates, can have sensational effects on the career of a young player, especially if he proves to have broad shoulders: and Fonseca has already succeeded.
