Follow us on Google Discover Joao Fonseca has been given some advice from Jim Courier after winning the biggest title of his career.
Fonseca won the ATP 500 tournament in Basel after beating Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the final.
After winning the second title of his career, Fonseca responded to comparisons to Novak Djokovic.
Fonseca has now reached a career-high ranking after winning the Swiss Indoors title, and Jim Courier has made a prediction about the Brazilian teenager for 2026.
Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images for Laver CupJim Courier predicts where Joao Fonseca should be aiming to be ranked next year
Many big predictions have been made about Fonseca this year, who is now at his best ranking of world number 28.
While former world number one Courier believes that Fonseca will continue climbing the ranks, he has suggested a more realistic goal for the 19-year-old next year.
Courier has also pointed out two of Fonseca’s weaknesses that he thinks he should work on in the off-season to help him reach this goal, drawing comparisons to Jannik Sinner.
“I think a good goal for him would be 15 in the rankings, that’s a big jump from 25 in the live rankings where he is today and he can improve on that if he has a good run in Paris for sure,” Courier said when speaking on the Tennis Channel.
“But I think 15, because he’s going to have better draws for sure as a top player, but he’s also got a target on his back. Things I want to see from him, I want to see his legs much stronger when he shows up in January. He needs to put on five pounds of muscle if he can this off-season in his legs, so he can play defence out of the corners, because that’s a real weak spot still.
“But that’s normal, Sinner was like that too. A little more control of his shot selection, the guy has more power than he needs, he’s got to pull back on the throttle. So there’s so much upside here, but he needs to mould it, it’s still very much a work in progress.”
Jim Courier praises Joao Fonseca for a decision he made recently
Fonseca won the Argentina Open this year and has now added the Swiss Indoors title to continue his climb up the rankings from world number 145 to 28, all in the space of this year.
Photo by Marina Espeche/NurPhoto via Getty Images
However, Fonseca has not had completely positive results in 2025, but Courier did admit that he was impressed by the teenager’s decision to skip the Asian swing and prioritise his wellbeing.
“Well I think it’s been a season of highs and lows, and lots of learning,” said Courier. “You know, this is a guy who came in and was so impressive, I mean when you win in Argentina beating five Argentine’s to win your first title on the tour, you know you’ve got some moxie.
“Then he had expectations after that, he had a real tough time, I think it was between Miami and the US Open he went 11-11 on tour…lots of tough lessons, but overall a really positive season.
“Next year he’s got a lot of room to grow, he’s got a lot to do in the off-season. But one thing I like Sam, is the fact that after he played Laver Cup he didn’t go to Asia, he took some time to rest and train and that has obviously paid a dividend for him.”
Former Wimbledon semifinalist Sam Querrey added, “Yeah, and that’s obviously been a huge talking point the whole year, the schedule and mandatory events, non-mandatory events. Joao Fonseca has said ‘I’m just going to play what’s best for me and my body,’ and that’s exactly what he did and it paid off.”
As Fonseca looks to continue climbing up the rankings and cement his position as a seed for the Australian Open next year, he has two more tournaments remaining in 2025.
The first of those is at the Paris Masters, where Fonseca will play Denis Shapovalov again in the first round.