Long after the chants of his name had died out, Joao Fonseca remained on the clay at Court 7.
Armed with a black marker and with his match-worn baseball cap now on backwards, and suddenly looking like an 18-year-old again after a match in which he appeared well beyond his years, Fonseca posed for selfies with dozens of fans. He signed autographs -- on tennis balls, hats, shirts, anything that was put in front of him -- for children and adults. When he was done with all the fans on one side of the court, he made his way to the other, seemingly set on reaching everyone who stayed.
He smiled widely throughout and looked like a teenager simply thrilled to be at his first French Open.
But his play during his first-round match on Tuesday told a different story. During the clash against Hubert Hurkacz, the tournament's No. 30 seed and a former Wimbledon semifinalist, Fonseca was dominant. He took control early -- breaking Hurkacz in the third game of the opening set -- and left little to chance from there.
In front of a vocal crowd packed into every available seat of the 1,500-capacity court, with fans waving Brazilian flags and lining up on the top railings and hundreds more waiting outside in hopes of glimpsing a peek, Fonseca proved why he's long been considered tennis' next superstar. He defeated Hurkacz 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 in just an hour and 40 minutes.
While Fonseca told reporters on Tuesday that merely reaching the second round was "just a dream come true," his match against Pierre-Hugues Herbert on Thursday will now be one of the most coveted seats at the tournament this week. And every match Fonseca plays, every highlight-making shot and every victory over a top-ranked opponent, will only continue to propel the prodigious teenager to new heights of fame. But he sounded ready for all of it.
"The expectations are going to come. People are going to talk, compare [me] with other people, other players," Fonseca said after his win over Hurkacz. "For my mentality, it's just good to be with good people that can help me to stay with a good mentality that I need. I need to do the best that I can [to] improve my routines, stay with good people, stay healthy and not focusing on the expectations.
"I'm managing to do very well, but sometimes the pressure is going to come. It's normal. You need to deal with it."
FONSECANON 💥#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/tEBHbA3F2F
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 27, 2025
Fonseca's heroics for the Court 7 crowd on Tuesday were nothing new for those who have followed him on his brief but thrilling journey on the tennis scene.
Fonseca officially put the world on notice in 2023 by winning the US Open boys title and then claiming the world No. 1 junior ranking the same year. He became the first Brazilian player in history to end the year with the top ranking, drawing the attention of the sport's biggest names. He was asked to attend the year-end ATP Finals as a hitting partner for the likes of Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev.
Just three months later, Fonseca recorded his first win on the ATP Tour -- a head-turning 6-0, 6-4 victory over the seventh-seeded Arthur Fils at Fonseca's hometown Rio Open in which he had been attending as a fan since early childhood. He went on to reach the quarterfinals of the 500-level event, with his matches throughout the week drawing soccer-like crowds. His ranking soared. Initially slated to play at the University of Virginia starting in the fall of 2024, Fonseca decided to forego his collegiate eligibility and turn professional.
The excitement around him continued to build.
Fonseca had been the first man born in 2006 to win on tour, and he continued to rack up many other "youngest" distinctions as the season progressed.
He won his first Challenger title in August -- the youngest player to win at that level last season -- and steadily continued his climb up the rankings. By the end of 2024 he was in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for the Next Generation ATP Finals, featuring the top eight-ranked men 20 years and younger. Fonseca was the youngest player in the field, and the lowest-ranked at No. 145. He won.
While few others had any doubt, the win was validating for Fonseca.
"It was super important for me to see that I'm on the right path," Fonseca later told ESPN. "To be playing against the top eight best guys under 20, just to see how good they are, it was great to be able to win the title and a super cool experience."
And even his far-more established peers couldn't hide their admiration.
"I personally believe it's just the beginning of him rising up in the rankings and showing his actual true potential," Stefanos Tsitsipas, the 2021 French Open finalist, told reporters at the United Cup the next week. "I think we're going to see big things from him in the next few years."
Fonseca made good on Tsitsipas' claim just weeks later. After winning his three qualifying matches, Fonseca made his eagerly awaited major main draw debut at the Australian Open. In his first-round match, against the No. 9 seed and 10-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist Andrey Rublev, Fonseca made sure his formal introduction to the tennis world was a memorable one with a 7-6 (1), 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory.
The crowd -- many of whom were wearing Brazilian soccer jerseys -- roared in ovation following match point and he celebrated like a seasoned veteran. He later said it was his first time playing in a "huuuuuge stadium."
He lost his next match in a five-set battle to Lorenzo Sonego but he cracked the top 100 following his performance in Melbourne.
And his momentum didn't stop there. In his next tournament, Fonseca went from a prodigy brimming with potential to a star of the present with the first ATP title of his burgeoning career at the Argentina Open. He became the youngest Brazilian player in history to win on the tour and the fourth-youngest ATP player to win a title in this century, behind only Kei Nishikori, Rafael Nadal and Alcaraz.
While Fonseca has always had big goals for himself, even he was surprised by just how quickly the results had come.
"I was hoping I could go this far, but not this fast," Fonseca told ESPN while sitting in the player's lounge at Indian Wells a few weeks later. "I was working hard for this, but yeah, this has been faster than [even] I could imagine."
During Nadal's press conference on Sunday following an on-court ceremony honoring him, the 14-time French Open champion was asked about just one current player. It wasn't Alcaraz or Iga Swiatek, the reigning champions who both were in attendance at the ceremony, nor any of the other favorites to win the 2025 title, but instead, Fonseca.
"He's a very young player that started his career doing very, very well," Nadal said. "He has a great future in front. I wish him all the very best. I met him a couple of times. Seems like he has a very good interaction with his family and people next to him. He's very well educated. I really hope that he has a great future in front."
And the question to Nadal was hardly an anomaly. It feels like every top player has been asked about Fonseca lately. Coco Gauff, herself a recent teenage phenom, proclaimed she's been "on the Fonseca train since early." Alcaraz, another fellow former teenager prodigy-turned-superstar, said Fonseca's "potential is huge" and praised his "really, really high" level.
Even Novak Djokovic, the 24-time major champion who was once an up-and-coming star himself, has been impressed by what he's seen.
"He seems to be handling [the expectations and attention] very well," Djokovic said. "I mean, I don't know him personally so well, but from what I have seen on the court, not only the way he plays but the way he behaves, and people around him, seems like there is a very good level of balance and professionalism and devotion, like what we have seen for the last couple years with Alcaraz. He has the potential to be really a superstar of this game. No doubt about it."
For Fonseca, still just 18, it's been surreal at times to hear players he's admired for much of his life know who he is, let alone speak so highly about him. He's still getting used to seeing players like Grigor Dimitrov and Alex de Minaur next to him on the practice court but admits sometimes it all just doesn't feel real. His matches have drawn huge, often near-capacity crowds around the globe, frequently with hordes of passionate Brazilian fans, complete with flags and yellow-and-green gear. The atmosphere was so electrifying at the Miami Open, in which he reached the third round, Fonseca later remarked he felt like he "was in Brazil."
On Tuesday, he estimated about "80% of the crowd was Brazilian" on Court 7 -- and called it "super nice."
He still can't entirely believe it when someone stops him to take a picture, but it's becoming more normal to him with each tournament -- and he's always happy to do it.
"Three years ago, I was the kid asking for the picture," Fonseca said. "I know what it means. It's a dream come true that people are now inspired by me."
Despite the growing tornado of enthusiasm around him, Fonseca and his family are trying to keep it as normal and relaxed as they can for the time being. While agencies like Roger Federer's Team8 have famously tried to sign him, he's declined to have a formal agent for now. He instead relies on his parents -- his father Christiano is the founder and CEO of a Brazilian hedge fund -- to play that role for him.
He brought on Franco Davin, who guided Juan Martin del Potro to US Open victory in 2009, as a member of his team earlier this spring, but Fonseca's primary coach is still Guilherme Teixeira, who he first met and started training with as a 12-year-old at the Rio de Janeiro Country Club. Fonseca's inner circle is small and he likes it that way. Those around him keep grounded and focused on staying the course.
Like most young players, especially those who have already achieved so much, Fonseca has big dreams for his career. But he insists he's only thinking about the next steps, knowing those will be what get him to his ultimate goals. Right now he's focused on making the main draw for every major this season and improving his ranking enough so he can play in as many Masters 1000-level and 500-level tournaments as possible.
He'll have a chance to reach the third round at a Grand Slam for the first time with his next match against Herbert, a French journeyman nearly twice his age, on Thursday. Tuesday's victory will likely move him to a new career-high ranking of around No. 57, and another win would propel him just outside the top 50. Jack Draper, the No. 5 seed, or beloved Frenchman Gael Monfils would await in the Round of 32.
Fonseca admitted he has struggled at times this spring with the weight of the external pressure. He said it made him feel tense on the court and took away some of his enjoyment. But he says he's found a way past that and is now ready to just appreciate his time in Paris. However long it is. And no matter how many people are watching and projecting on what it means for his future.
"Now I'm feeling very comfortable," Fonseca said. "I'm feeling very happy on court. Happy and playing good."