Brazilian João Fonseca is out of the ATP 250 in Adelaide, Australia. This Saturday (10), the tennis player from Rio published a video on the social network Instagram, in which he announced his withdrawal due to lower back pain. It’s the same injury that already took him out of the ATP 250 in Brisbane, also on Australian soil, and Brazil’s commitment to Canada in the Davis Cup, a tournament equivalent to a men’s World Cup in tennis.
“Unfortunately, I had to withdraw from the Adelaide tournament. I’m feeling back pain and trying to recover as quickly as possible to be 100% on the court again”, declared the 19-year-old from Rio, in the video.
Fonseca is racing against time to compete in the Australian Open, the first of the circuit’s four main tournaments – the so-called Grand Slams – of the season. After posting on social media, he held a press conference in Adelaide. According to the Brazilian, the low back pain has been chronic.
“I was born with something in my back and sometimes it gets more painful. I already had a stress fracture five years ago, but it’s something that will be in my body, so I need to deal with it. We did an MRI and it’s nothing too serious, but it could get serious, so we want to be 100%,” said Fonseca.
The Brazilian is 29th in the ranking of the Association of Professional Tennis Players (ATP). He dropped five positions compared to 2025, after being left out of the Brisbane ATP, and is expected to lose a few more places due to his absence in Adelaide. Even so, he is guaranteed to be one of the 32 seeds at the Australian Open, which means avoiding a clash with a top-30 seed in the world, at least, in the first two phases.
