"It scares me a little" - Justine Henin makes startling comparison between rising star Joao Fonseca and Carlos Alcaraz
ATP
Brazilian wonderkid Joao Fonseca has been one of the breakthrough stars of the young ATP season, although former WTA world No.1 Justine Henin would like fans to temper their expectations.
Fonseca announced his arrival on the grand stage after winning the Next Gen ATP Finals last December, before shocking the world by defeating ninth seed Andrey Rublev in the first round of the 2025 Australian Open. The 18-year old would go on to win the biggest title of his career at the Argentina Open, and has been one of the hottest commodities on tour this year.
Henin thinks the pressure may get to Fonseca like it did Alcaraz
There have been several comparisons between Fonseca and Alcaraz, with the Spaniard touted as the future of tennis during his breakout season on tour a few years ago. Although the former World No.1 has won four Grand Slam titles thus far, he has had an underwhelming 2025, winning just one title this season while suffering several surprising losses.
Seven-time Grand Slam champion Henin believes the young Brazilian will face challenges as his career progresses, and the expectations of others may end up hampering the Brazilian's development.
"We can see that he’s going through phases of reflection,” Henin told Eurosport France. “He’s a 21-year-old player who has won four Grand Slams but still has so much to learn to get through more difficult times.
"Since he arrived on the tour, what have people been saying about Carlos Alcaraz? ‘It’s extraordinary what he offers us in terms of tennis, it’s completely crazy, we love watching him play, he’s the player we most like to see evolve.
"And he knows all of this, he hears it because we hear everything anyway, they can no longer be protected from that and it puts enormous pressure on his shoulders. For me, a Fonseca who arrives and when I see the excitement around this boy, it scares me a little."
"Since he arrived on the tour, what have people been saying about Carlos Alcaraz? ‘It’s extraordinary what he offers us in terms of tennis, it’s completely crazy, we love watching him play, he’s the player we most like to see evolve.
"And he knows all of this, he hears it because we hear everything anyway, they can no longer be protected from that and it puts enormous pressure on his shoulders. For me, a Fonseca who arrives and when I see the excitement around this boy, it scares me a little."
Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.
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