Teenage phenom Joao Fonseca qualifies for Australian Open

Fonseca has become the first South American teenager to qualify for a major since Juan Martin del Potro.

The Brazilian is fresh off his dominant performance in the 2024 ATP Next Gen Finals, where he became just the third teenager to win the event that historically has been a launching pad to the senior circuit. Case in point: World No. 1 Jannik Sinner and World No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz made significant strides on the senior Tour immediately after they won the Next Gen Finals in 2019 and 2021, respectively. 

As such, it's reasonable to expect Fonseca to make some noise this season. The youngster turned pro in 2024 but couldn't qualify for any of the four majors last year. However, he turned heads with impressive performances at the ATP 500 event in Rio de Janeiro and the ATP 250 event in Bucharest. He also defeated World No. 20 Arthur Fils at the Rio Open to record his first win over a top-ranked senior pro.

Fonseca will face World No. 9 Andre Rublev in the first round of the 2025 Australian Open. Ahead of the clash, Fonseca said he and his team had already crossed off their biggest goal for the season. 

"It was one of the goals of this year to qualify and then with the first [Grand Slam] we qualified," he said, via AusOpen.com. "I'm feeling confident, I'm feeling good, and when we passed here [Australian Open qualifying] just very happy, very comfortable and hopefully we can do some great things in the main draw."

The 2025 Australian Open main draw gets underway on Sunday. Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka, the defending champions, are the betting favorites to repeat. Sabalenka is trying to become the first woman since Martina Hingis in 1997-99 to three-peat in Melbourne.