Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are the two new leaders of the ATP tour and have already shown that they can make history in the sport. However, fans and insiders are wondering if any other players will be able to enter the fight between these two young champions in the coming years.
Many people believed that the third name would be Holger Rune, especially after the rise of the young Dane in 2022. The latter – however – has dropped a lot in the last two seasons and has moved away from the Italian and the Spaniard, falling into a deep crisis.
Joao Fonseca, Canberra Challenger 2025© X – ATP Challenger Tour
According to several experts, one player who could really become a champion is Joao Fonseca. The young Brazilian is still far from the top positions of the ATP ranking, but he has already shown flashes of his immense talent.
In particular, Fonseca was unstoppable between the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025. Joao won the Next Gen ATP Finals at the end of last season, before winning the Canberra Challenger with great authority earlier this year.
Fonseca is on fire
As if that were not enough, the Brazilian talent qualified for the main draw of the 2025 Australian Open without losing a single set. Fonseca is already very dangerous for the top players and his first rival at Melbourne Park will be Andrey Rublev.
The Russian player is not going through the best moment of his career and started 2025 rather badly by losing to Fabian Marozsan in Hong Kong last week. If Andrey doesn’t play his best tennis, he could be eliminated as early as the first round of the Happy Slam.
Joao Fonseca, Next Gen ATP Finals 2024© Stream screenshot
On the latest edition of his podcast, former world No. 1 Andy Roddick confessed that he expects great things from Fonseca in the near future: “I’m a big fan of Rublev, who is a very strong player and a very good guy.
However, Fonseca’s name is increasingly in vogue and everyone is talking about it. I think he will become one of the top favorites to win Grand Slam tournaments within the next 2-3 years.”
Tennis World USA