"Things take time" - Alexander Zverev urges fans to temper expectations regarding Joao Fonseca's rise to superstardom
ATP
Although Brazilian wonderkid Joao Fonseca has been the talk of the short ATP season so far, former World No.2 Alexander Zverev has asked for patience when evaluating the teenager's potential.
Fonseca burst onto the tennis scene after winning the Next Gen ATP Finals in Jeddah last December, and recorded one of the biggest wins of his career by defeating ninth seed Andrey Rublev at the Australian Open last month. Subsequently, the 18-year old would win his maiden ATP title at the Argentina Open a few weeks later, setting the entire ATP circuit on notice.
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Zverev believes Fonseca will eventually rise to the top
The Rio native got the opportunity to play in front of his home crowd at the 2025 Rio Open this week. However, he fell in his opening round match against Frenchman Alexandre Muller. Nonetheless, the future seems bright for the rising star.
Zverev, who is the top seed in Rio, was asked about Fonseca's potential following the German's 7-6(1) 7-6(6) round of 16 victory over Ukrainian Alexander Shevchenko.
“I really like the kid," admitted Zverev. "Both as a player and as a person. He will be a top 10 and top 5 player for sure but that won’t happen now or tomorrow. Things take time."
The World No.2 will take on Argentine Francisco Comesana in the quarterfinals on Friday.
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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