{"id":170823,"date":"2025-09-21T01:15:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T01:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/170823\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T01:15:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T01:15:09","slug":"pat-rafter-predicts-what-will-happen-to-joao-fonseca-in-two-years-time-having-coached-him-at-the-laver-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/170823\/","title":{"rendered":"Pat Rafter predicts what will happen to Joao Fonseca in two years’ time having coached him at the Laver Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Joao Fonseca picked up Team World\u2019s only point on day one of the Laver Cup with his straight-sets victory over Flavio Cobolli. <\/p>\n

After Casper Ruud\u2019s opening triumph<\/a> and Jakub Mensik\u2019s win gave Team Europe a 2-0 lead, Fonseca<\/a> came out on top against Cobolli, 6-4, 6-3, to get his side on the board. <\/p>\n

The Brazilian was playing in his first-ever match at the Laver Cup<\/a>, and produced a hard-hitting display against the Italian. <\/p>\n

Fonseca\u2019s performance impressed his team\u2019s vice captain, Pat Rafter<\/a>, who thinks the 19-year-old has a very bright future ahead of him. <\/p>\n

\"JoaoPhoto by Ezra Shaw\/Getty Images for Laver CupPat Rafter reacts to Joao Fonseca\u2019s victory at the Laver Cup<\/p>\n

When asked in his press conference to describe the young star\u2019s debut win, Rafter said: \u201cThe words that come to mind, incredibly mature.<\/p>\n

\u201cA very good tennis brain. He\u2019s calm. He\u2019s open to suggestions. He\u2019s open to learning. He\u2019s quick to respond. He\u2019s quick to learn.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see that side of him as such a mature part of the game that you can see what he\u2019ll need to take forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo in a year\u2019s time, he\u2019ll be a great player. In two years\u2019 time, I think he\u2019ll be exceptional, because he has the ability to learn,\u201d predicted the Australian. <\/p>\n

\"AndrePhoto by Eakin Howard\/Getty Images for Laver Cup<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wants to keep improving his game. We just saw what he can do out there, but he\u2019s not there yet. You know, what I saw today was maturity.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday I was thinking, I hope he controls it. He just went out and played such a mature match. Cobolli threw everything at him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe moved very well. He made him play a lot of balls, and he withstood that for the whole two sets, and then he confused Cobolli. He just turned the match on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a sign of how powerful his game is and where it can go. He\u2019s got to adapt to different surfaces, different speeds, and different balls, and not everything will suit him throughout his next couple of years, but he will learn.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no problem with his ability to take all that information on. Just his career path, to me, I only see really good things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LaverPhoto by Ezra Shaw\/Getty Images for Laver CupThe order of play for day two at the 2025 Laver Cup<\/p>\n

Alexander Zverev<\/a> will look to build on Team Europe\u2019s 3-1 lead in the opening match on day two of the Laver Cup against Team World\u2019s Alex de Minaur. <\/p>\n

The second contest of the day will see Holger Rune faced with Francisco Cerundolo, in what will mark their second career meeting. <\/p>\n

In the night session, Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> will play Taylor Fritz<\/a>, before Ruud and Rune take on de Minaur and Alex Michelsen in doubles. <\/p>\n

Each win on day two of the Laver Cup is worth two points. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joao Fonseca picked up Team World\u2019s only point on day one of the Laver Cup with his straight-sets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[12551,51059,101092,99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-170823","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-joao-fonseca","9":"tag-laver-cup","10":"tag-pat-rafter","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}