World tennis sensation, Brazilian João Fonseca was announced this Thursday (20) as one of the four finalists for the ATP Awards 2025, in the biggest evolution category of the season, after a vote that brought together specialized journalists. The 19-year-old from Rio de Janeiro, who started the year in 145th place in the rankings, rose meteorically to 24th place after facing renowned opponents and winning four titles: the ATP 500 in Basel, the ATP 250 in Buenos Aires and the Challengers in Canberra (Australia) and Phonix (United States). The Brazilian is competing for the award granted by the Association of Professional Tennis Players (ATP) together with the British Jack Draper (10th in the ranking), the Czech Jakub Mensik (19th) and the Monegasque Valentin Vacherot (31st).
The Rio native also has a good chance of winning the “Fan Favorite” award if he is elected in a popular vote. There were many matches in which the name João Fonseca was chanted by fans during the competitions he played in. All the top 100 tennis players in the rankings are in the running. THE Voting takes place on the ATP website. The winners of all ATP Awards 2025 categories will be announced during the second week of December.
The nomination for the biggest evolution of the year category seems tailor-made for the young Brazilian tennis player. Among the criteria are big jumps in the ranking; unprecedented titles and surprising victories. Right on his debut at the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam on the professional circuit, Fonseca was still ranked 113th when he defeated Russian Andrey Rublev, number 9 in the world at the time. At the end of January, the Rio native entered the top 100 for the first time, becoming the second youngest tennis player, after Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, to join the select group.
For the first time, the category in which Fonseca competes at the ATP Awards will be decided by the “ATP Club Number 1”, which has Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten among its 29 members. The club only brings together tennis players who have topped the world rankings at some point.
Also on Thursday (20), two other ATP Awards categories were announced. The competitors for the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award are Spanish Carlos Alcaraz, Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, Norwegian Casper Ruud and Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.
Already in contention for the best coach of the year award are coaches Darren Cahill and Simone Vagnozzi (Italian Jannik Sinner), Juan Carlos Ferrero and Samuel Lopez (Spanish Carlos Alcaraz), Benjamin Balleret (Monegasque Valentin Vacherot), Frederic Fontang (Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime) and Bryan Shelton (North American Ben Shelton).
