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João Fonseca and Atp Tournaments 101: Get To Know the Player and How Tournaments Work

  • Writer: Helena Rocholi
    Helena Rocholi
  • Mar 19
  • 6 min read

Updated: Mar 24



During the last couple of months there has been a new Brazilian player who has standed out in the tennis world, his name is João Franca Guimarães Fonseca. And if you are a Brazilian like me, you love to support your fellow Brazilians in sports. However, you also don’t have any idea of how the tennis world works, so here is a quick manual for you to understand the biggest tournaments in tennis and how João is starring in it.


How a tennis match works (the basics):


In tennis for you to win the match you need to win the majority of the sets. There are two ways to receive points in tennis: when the opponent's ball hits out of the drawn court or if the ball bounces twice on your opponent's side of the court.


When one of these happen, you receive one point, and the first person that gets 4 points wins the “game”. However instead of saying you have 1, 2 or 3 points in tennis you count it as LOVE,15, 30,40, and game.  For each “game”, only one of the players serves the ball. If both players are with 40 points, they have to do a best of two to win the “game”. When one of the players finishes a game they get one point for the sets and allgame points are reset to 0. 

To win a set you need to have 6 games, but if both players are with 5 games, they need to win 7 games to win the set. This is called a tiebreaker, which is essentially a separate game where the players compete, changing who serves every two points, for who gets to seven points first (goes until there is a two point difference between both players). Additionally, The winner of the match has to win 2 or 3 sets (depending on tournament and sex) to win the full tennis game.




What is an ATP Tournament and what is its relevance?


ATP stands for Association of Tennis Professionals meaning every tennis play that participates in any of these tournaments is considered a professional tennis player. An ATP championship or tournament are the tennis tournaments played by the best tennis players in the world.


There are four main levels of tournaments inside the ATP world: ATP 250, 500, 1000, and Grand Slams. There are four Grand Slams each year, which are the Australian Open (Melbourne), Roland-Garros (Paris), Wimbledon (London), and US Open (New York). When winning a Grand Slam, you receive 2000 points (affects ranking), making them the greatest and most important tournaments in the tennis world. 


The next level is ATP 1000 or Master 1000, this is the second most important category of tennis tournament there is. There are a total of nine Masters 1000, but the most famous are: Indian Wells (United States), Miami Open (United States) and Monte-Carlo Master (Monaco/France). Winning a Master 1000 means you bring 1000 points home to the rankings. 


The 3rd Level of ATP tournaments are the ATP 500, and when winning it you get 500 points. Some tournaments that are in this category are the Rio Open, China Open, and Rotterdam Open, but there are 13 other tournaments that fall in this category. The final category is ATP 250, which is the category where the winner receives less points, adding up 250 points to the ranking. Some examples include Argentina Open (which João Fonseca won), Chile Open, and Hong Kong Open.


How the ranking work and João’s Placement in it 


The ATP ranking show which professional players were the best in the previous year. The winner of each tournament gets the amount of points the tournament is worth for (2000, 1000, 500 or 250). Each place below the winner gets a certain amount of points as well, for example the second place in a grand slam gets 1200 points and the second place in the ATP 1000  gets 600 points added to the ranking. The number of points will always vary depending on the tournament and the place the player got. After one year on the tournament all points for it will be taken off the ranking. For example this week all points from ATP Buenos Aires 2024 were removed from the ranking. 


At the moment, Fonseca has 850 points and is ranked number 78 in the world. He has 250 from winning ATP Buenos Aires, 80 from participating in Australian Open, 30 from participation in ATP Master 1000 Madrid, 100 from Rio Open last year and another 390 from different tournaments. 


There is only one other Brazilian in the top 100 in the world. His name is Thiago Wild, who is in 86th place with 682 career points.  



João's past in the tennis world 


João at first wanted to become a football player. But one day he got injured inside the field and decided to focus on tennis. He became a highlight of the tennis world when he was champion at the 2023 juvenile edition of US Open and was ranked top 1 in that category. 


During 2023, João was planning on going to university in the US to play college tennis, but he decided to stay, which was good because last year he was able to make it to the quarterfinals of Rio Open and participate in the Buscareste and Romania championships. João also won Next Gen Finals, which is a tournament with the best 8 tennis players in the world under 20. 


João in his first Grand Slam: 


In the beginning of 2025, Joao Fonseca was part of the qualifiers for the Australia’s Open. In these, he not only won all games but also did not lose a single set. This was a big step for João because it meant he was going to participate in his first Grand Slam.


In the Australian Open, João made history! Playing against world champions, he unexpectedly won all three sets in  a match against Audrey Rublev, who is number 9 on the PIF ATP Ranking. Unfortunately, João was eliminated when he lost a game against Lorenzo Sonego.


ATP Buenos Aires 2025: How João Fonseca won and is now the youngest brazilian player to win a ATP Championship




Sunday, February 17, João Fonseca became the youngest Brazilian to win an ATP championship. At only 18 years old, João beat Francisco Cerundolo, an Argentine tennis player, in the ATP Buenos Aires final, becoming the 10th youngest person to win an ATP championship. Lleyton Hewitt (was 16 years old), Andrey Medvedev (17) Kei Nishikori, Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz and Michael Chang are the players that won an ATP tournament when they were younger than Fonseca. 


João started this tournament with an easy win against Tomás Etcheverry, which he won both sets 6 and 3. Then he went against Federico Coria in the Round of 16, where he lost the first set, but then came back running and won the next two. In the quarterfinals, João also lost the first set to Mariano Navone, but won the game after. His last game before the final match was against Laslo Đere, where he won the first and last sets. 


The last game of the tournament was against Francisco Cerúndolo, who is the 30th best player in the world. Many odds were showing that Cerúndolo would win. However, once again, Fonseca impressed the whole world and won his first ATP Championship. 


João Fonseca became the youngest Brazilian player to win an ATP title, surpassing Guga (Gustavo Kuerten). Guga had the record from his first Roland Garros win when he was only 19 years old. This is so clever because Fonseca stated many times that Guga is his biggest inspiration and he would not be what he is if it wasn't for Guga. 


Fonseca became the 10th youngest player to win an ATP tournament after that game. Lleyton Hewitt (was 16 years old), Andrey Medvedev (17) Kei Nishikori, Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz and Michael Chang are the players that won an ATP tournament when they were younger than Fonseca. 





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