The Joao Fonseca experience hits Paris

Eight hours later, that enthusiasm was still pulsating. Two sets into Andrey Rublev’s first-round match with Lloyd Harris the tribunes — 10 rows deep on either side of the court — were packed to the gills with green and yellow-clad fans who sat quietly waiting for their moment. 

A chilly Tuesday night in Paris, a good time for a tennis carnival.

The standing room only section behind the baseline? Five rows deep, with wide-eyed fans on their tippy toes, angling for a better view. 

The queue outside the stadium? Snaking in the shadows of Court-Philippe Chatrier like a python with an alligator in its belly. 

Welcome to the Joao Fonseca experience. Already witnessed by sold out crowds in Melbourne, Rio, Buenos Aires and Miami, the growing phenomenon hit Paris for a main draw debut on Tuesday, like a Beatlemania touchdown in New York City, circa 1964.

All the ingredients were there. Hysterical fans. Inexhaustible delirium. Religious fervour. 

Perhaps Fonseca is the new John Lennon of Tennis? Fans do seem to flock to this magnetic kid eight days a week…and they go to extremes to see him.

Due east of Court 7, as Fonseca authoritatively commenced his shellacking of Hubert Hurkacz, fans with tickets for the Chatrier night session hung over glass barriers, wedging in shoulder to shoulder to catch a glimpse of the young phenom from above. 

Very few players have this kind of instant allure on tour, let alone a 65th-ranked 18-year-old with very little Grand Slam experience under his belt. The Rio de Janeiro native was making his second main draw appearance at a major on Tuesday, and yet the young powerhouse who hits his groundstrokes with the menace of a jiu-jitsu warrior acted like he had been there, done that. 

Then he did it again.

Fonseca’s raw, explosive game is still being refined, but he is building it into an indefensible juggernaut at a rapid clip — and his fans are getting excited.

We’d be remiss not to mention the presence of the Polish contingent on Court 7. They were out in large numbers to back Hurkacz as well, but any time a duel of the chanting fan bases took place the Brazilians quickly took the upper hand.

Fonseca did his part to help keep his supporters in a buoyant mood. He played the perfect match, featuring 36 jaw-dropping winners and just 15 unforced errors. At some moments during rallies, his impressive physicality won him points he should have lost.

This is what they came to see, exactly what Fonseca delivered.

This was a night for Brazil, a night for a new hope, and a time to rejoice. 

And so they did. Clad in green and yellow, many of them with Brazilian flags at the ready, they let it rip, and Fonseca did the same. 

Still several months shy of his 19th birthday, Fonseca displayed zero nerves against Hurkacz and played emphatic tennis from the start, breaking serve twice in the first set and then again to start the second, with a beautiful cross court volley that brought the faithful out of their seats. 

The crowd erupted, and a father and son sitting next to me beamed with pride.

“This kid’s good,” the father, named Ivan, gushed, adding: “our future Guga.”

To compare Fonseca to Brazilian legend Gustavo Kuerten, a three-time champion in Paris, and one of its most immortal characters in Roland-Garros history, is a bit premature. 

But to say that watching Fonseca light up a tennis court doesn’t inspire that kind of hope would be untrue. It has been 24 years since “Guga” won his last title in Paris. With Fonseca already thriving, the hope is that the drought won’t last much longer. 

Tasked with serving the second set out, Fonseca didn’t blink.

In the third the young talent rode the crowd's energy like a big wave surfer and again broke serve in the first game. It was all over but the elation at that point.

A Roland-Garros debut for the ages, Fonseca’s clinical victory could not have been more impressive. The Brazilian and his fans fed off one another like a circuit and its current. 

And what of the line that snaked outside of Court 7 before the match? They cheered anytime someone filed out of the confines, in the hopes they would find a seat and catch a glimpse of Fonseca in action, but they were mainly left waiting outside when the match concluded.

When the 18-year-old put the finishing touches on the win, they slowly filed in to celebrate as jubilant spectators began to file out. Not the ideal Joao Fonseca experience, but the smiles on their faces told another story. 

A woman named Marcella, Brazilian-born but living in Belgium, summed up Fonseca’s “it factor” best as we walked out of the stadium. It was her first time seeing him live and she was clearly moved. 

“Aura,” she said, adjusting the Brazilian flag that she wore like a cape. “And he’s only 18.”