The first chants of “FON! SE! CA!” started up shortly before noon, and it’s fair to say João Fonseca was in need of all the encouragement he could get. For half an hour the Brazilian No 24 seed had been slapped around to the point of mockery. The world No 132 Roman Safiullin of Russia, a quarter-finalist here in 2023, was standing daringly close to the baseline, taking the ball early, teasing him with immaculate drop shots. Now he was 5-3 up and serving for the first set, but three set points had come and gone. Right on cue, with the match at its first moment of crisis, the aural cavalry made its move.
And whenever Fonseca plays, wherever he happens to be, noise tends to follow. Ever since early 2024, when the Rio de Janeiro native reached the quarter-finals of his home tournament at the age of just 17, a kind of madness has built around him: a travelling army of Brazilians and Brazilian expats filling the world’s tennis arenas with the fervour of the football terraces. They call it fonsequismo, and from Melbourne to Miami, no court in the world is immune.
