Fonseca Showing Veteran Poise in Quick Paris Turnaround

One of the hardest things for young players to do during their formative years on tour is back up a brilliant performance. That’s why all eyes were on Joao Fonseca on Tuesday in Paris as the 19-year-old took the court just two days after making history in Basel, where he became the first man from his country to ever win an ATP 500 title and the youngest champion at the Swiss Indoors Basel in 36 years. 

Fonseca passed the test. 

He rallied from a set down to defeat Denis Shapovalov for the second time in as many weeks, and took his place in the second round with a 5-7 6-4 6-3 triumph. 

Fonseca, making his Paris Masters debut, stretches his winning streak to five and sets a second-round encounter with 2018 Paris champion Karen Khachanov. 

“It was a great experience today,” Fonseca said of his 26th win of the season. “After winning a tournament and changing the mindset for another tournament, another big tournament where I needed to play my best, because the guy that I played is a top-25 player.”

Credit Fonseca, who took a long break after Laver Cup after he started to feel run down, and his team, for making wise decisions with the calendar. It’s not easy to turn down playing opportunities and new experiences when you are a teenager, but Fonseca took the time to get mentally fresh and work on his fitness during the time off and it shows in his performance on the European hard courts. 

“This year was my first year playing the big tournaments,” Fonseca told reporters. “So one of the things that me and my team tried to focus on a lot was which weeks we’re going to play, which weeks not going to play, focus more on physique and mentality.”

Now that the Rio native has seen how helpful taking a break mid-season can be, he may end up doing it some more. One of the biggest edges a player can take into any competition is having fresher legs, and by learning at a young age to preserve his body and to know when to say no to playing, he has added another underrated weapon to his already lethal repertoire.