Brazilian teen Joao Fonseca has been tipped by many tennis watchers to be the player to eventually challenge the Carlos Alcaraz-Jannik Sinner duopoly at the top of the men\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
The 19-year-old has long been used comfortable carrying the weight of expectations. He just doesn\u2019t want to be rushed.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone has their time. My time will come,\u201d Fonseca said after his first-round win over Gabriel Diallo in Monte-Carlo.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played both of them and they were good matches. But I’m not close yet. I hope in the future I\u2019ll be able to say it was close every match. They play this level every match and I need to be more consistent. I need to work harder. But I think I’m on the right path.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be there competing against them. But people need to understand that I need time to become what they want me to become and what I want to become. I want to be No. 1 but I need to be humble and understand that things take time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last month Fonseca pushed eventual champion Sinner to two tie-breaks in Indian Wells and fell 6-4, 6-4 to Alcaraz in Miami.<\/p>\n
Fonseca is currently No. 40, 16 spots below his career-high of No. 24 following a challenging start to the year. A back injury restricted him to just one match during the Australian swing, then he won just one match on the clay of Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n
But strong wins over former Top 10 players Karen Khachanov and Tommy Paul in Indian Wells and the impressive showings against Sinner and Alcaraz have put Fonseca in a strong position coming into the clay season.<\/p>\n
He said that he was very happy with his 6-2, 6-3 win over Diallo to begin his European clay-court campaign. \u201cI felt great, it was a good match. It was my first time on that court and it was super special. I was very happy with the way I played.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fonseca next meets Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech.<\/p>\n
(Photo Corinne Dubreuil\/ATP Tour)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Teen wants to challenge Alcaraz & Sinner, but says he needs more time<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classifiee-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n