Joao Fonseca broke down in tears after sealing his spot in the third round of the 2025 French Open, his career-high Grand Slam position, on his mother’s birthday and with his grandmother in the stands. The 18-year-old won a hard-fought clash against wild card Pierre-Hugues Herbert in 7-6(4), 7-6(4), 6-4, which will play a major role in his rise to the career-best ranking of 54 in the coming week.
The Brazilian showed impeccable control as the match went extremely close for both players, with the crowd appropriately keeping the heat up with a well-balanced support for the duo. Notably, Fonseca has not dropped a set so far in the tournament and even ousted Hubert Hurkacz in his first-round match.
After his win against home favorite Herbert, he was overwhelmed with emotions as his family was able to witness such a notable moment of his career at the prestigious Roland-Garros. He felt special to have been able to achieve this feat on his mother’s birthday and with his grandmother in the stand. In a post-match interaction, he told ESPN (translated from Portuguese):
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"Today is my mother's birthday, and my grandmother is also here. I think I got more emotional when she came onto the court to congratulate me after the match."
He even showed his gratitude towards the crowd and the people who have supported him in his young yet promising career so far. Fonseca added:
"I just want to thank all the fans who supported me and believed in me. In the last few games, there was a lot of pressure on my side. I just wanted to thank my team and my family for helping me. It's really emotional because it's a very difficult sport. But I am young, and I am enjoying every moment."
Here is the video of him shedding tears during his post-match interaction:
Joao Fonseca previously displayed his potential at the 2025 Australian Open where he defeated Andrey Rublev in the opening round. He recently revealed his strategy for handling pressure in big matches.
Joao Fonseca on handling pressure in big matches
After reaching the second round on Tuesday, Joao Fonseca claimed coming under pressure during his first-round clash with Hurkacz at the Roland Garros. However, he has been maintaining it pretty well and working towards getting better at it. He told reporters:
"I'm managing to do very well, but sometimes the pressure is going to come. It's normal. You need to deal with it...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."
The Brazilian prodigy will face the winner of the match between Gael Monfils and Jack Draper in the third round on Saturday, May 31.
