Latest / Bleacher Report / 18-Year-Old Joao Fonseca Reflects On Making 3rd Round in First-Ever Roland-Garros

Transcript

18-Year-Old Joao Fonseca Reflects On Making 3rd Round in First-Ever Roland-Garros · Bleacher Report

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Joe Joe.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Okay, we need to calm down because Joel Fun's Sake
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: is here right now. We're really excited. Congratulations all making
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: it to the third round. Thank you, appreciate it. Everywhere
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: you go, the fans follow, the energy follows. What is
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: it like to lead the pack and have all of
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: that behind.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: You right now?
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: I mean, for me, it's just nice. I love the
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: crowd and I love to represent my country. So Brazilian's
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: going to my match is just just helped me a
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: lot to play, So it makes me more high than
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: the porter moments. So it's just the vibe is super cool.
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: The vibe is amazing.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Do you ever get a little nervous with so much energy?
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Like the fans are so intense all of you. Is
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: that put a little extra pressure on you at times?
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: I mean, of course, but I mean I started playing
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: with crowd since I was young because my clubs it's huge,
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: So I mean I started like getting to know a
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: little bit how to play with it. And sometimes when
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: important moments come and a little bit more pressure, you
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: just call them and just support you. And that's true
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: and eyes of the sport, and yeah, just I'm very
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: grateful for the Brazilians coming and exactly everywhere go there
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: are some Resilians watching me. So that's super nice.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: The best Joa.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: You have progressed so fast over especially the past couple
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: of years. We met back in the summer of twenty
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: twenty three. To see the things that you're doing now
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: is so incredible. But I'm curious to know what areas
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: of your game are you concerned with making sure or
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: focusing on to get better because you have the power,
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: you have the movement, Are there any areas of your
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: game that you're really focusing on developing over the next
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: say two to three years.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, of course I think that consistency. I know the
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: I mean the top fifty players, from the top ten ones,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: they play very similar, just the consistency they played, the
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: part of moments of the match they play differently. So
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: this consistency, I'm working very hard to stay good mental
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: to stay I mean today was a great, great match
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: for me because it was tough two sets and then
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: I needed to stay with my serf consistency. I need
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: to focus and it was hard. I was tired, of course,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: but I needed to focus. And those things makes you more,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: makes you more like ready to play with this great guys,
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: the top ten guys, the poorter moments, be brave, stay,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: courage And this is the for me. This is the
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: difference between the top fifty players and the top ten.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: The consistency.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: I love the mindset.
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: But again, non tennis questions, do you realize how cool
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: you are?
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm talking too much with Chris. He's rubbing
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: off on you. Yeah, he's helping a lot. Oh.
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: I mean I was in Miami at your match in
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: Miami and all the fans when they were going crazy,
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: and when they put you on court seven the other day,
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: I was like, are these people nuts? Like, there's no
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: way I think think Like I was like looking at
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: your Instagram, I was like checking you out. I'm like, okay,
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: there's so many people who follow you, so many they're
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: like literally like physically coming here to see you. Obviously,
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: we asked you about the pressure and like what you feel,
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: but do you feel like cool? Do you feel like
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: you have like an aura about you?
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: I feels rially cool. I mean, I'm young, so I'm
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: learning everything now. It's my first year that I'm like
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: going to all the big tournaments. So yeah, those lats
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: a few weeks, I've been more getting into nervous. I
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: was losing some matches because of my mental and winning
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: today was super important for me mentally. I'm working very
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: hard to beat these expectations and everything, like you know,
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: people are saying, oh, this is going to be the
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: lext promise or everything, and sometimes just like making more nervous.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: I mean, the crowd that they said sometimes make you nervous.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: So I'm kind of learning how to play with this
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: and the expectations and everything. So yeah, it's just nice
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: to see some some Brazilians like cheering for me when
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: I when I needed and yeah, I'm just I'm just young,
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: so I'm just yeah, so that's yeah, it's super cool
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: to see. And sometimes I'm I'm in motional so I
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: mean it's just because of everything. Today is my mom's
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: birthday and my I saw my grandmother coming to the match,
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: and I didn't know she was here, so she just
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: answered she was going to be there. I mean, I
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: know she loves Paris and she just came so that
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: I'm not gonna hug her. She just entered the court
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: and I hug her. I saw her crying and I
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: remember it was my mom's birthday, because I was like, okay,
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: I didn't I didn't remember, and I saw I saw
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: someone talking like, it's your mom's birthday. Oh I remember.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Today's just super cool. So and then after I hugged
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: her there, so when I started like talking to the interview,
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: I just started crying because I mean, it's it's a
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: lot of expectations, a lot, a lot of things to process,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: and I'm young, so I'm learning everything now. So yeah,
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: it's just super cool moment for me.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Embrace it all. That's really cool.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: Do you has anyone given you a nickname yet? I
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: mean the person has called me two things? When is phonism?
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: I mean whatever, it's way better than what you got.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: What I have one that I want to try. And
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: you tell me if you like it or not. You
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: want to close your eyes and let it wash over you. You're
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: ready the real rocket. I mean it's good. I like
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: to be aggressive mood whatever, But so if it sticks,
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: you're not against it. I'm not against it. Okay, I
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: love it.
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: You could tell that you weren't like yeah right now.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: I mean I tried to hit sometimes, I tried to
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: hit you. I just like it. So I mean, it's
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: just it's just nice for me. It's just nice.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Are you having fun right now? You've been thrown into
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: this world just basically overnight and the madness in Australian here,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: You enjoying this process?
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: I mean, of course, I'm passing to the locker roo,
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: I'm seeing Djokovic, Center Alcorazs. I've just seeing the good
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: guys and I mean just being around them is just
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: incredible for me. And getting up into the rankings and
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: playing these amazing tournaments, it's just just not I mean
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: I said, like I said, it's my first year as
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: playing this amazing tournament, this big tournament. So I'm just
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: enjoying every more every tournament and just getting new experiences.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: And yes, this is my first time here and actually
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: my first time here playing as a pro. So it's
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: my first time in Phillips Shah Tree a place I
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: went to when I was junior. I stayed in suzanl
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: and Glen, so I needed to like, where's the locker room,
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: where's the restaurant? So this this kind of stuff is
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: just amazing.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Your best friend, you Banks, is going to ask the
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: last question.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: It's not really a question. I found it so funny
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: that you said, you know, walking into the locker room,
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: they're center and those charaz thes. Djokovic just know people
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: are saying that about you. Yeah, like, and you're not
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: just a phenomenal tennis player, you're a really really good
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: person man. To see the joy that you play with,
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: you speak to everyone in the locker room. I just
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: want you to know we make note of that, and
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: we notice how nice and how kind of a person
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: you are, and so it's been really fun to see
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: your ascension and we know it's going to continue.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Keeping you. Joel, I try my best. I try my
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: best just to be me. I know a lot of
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: time of them is spontaneous, but I just tried to
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: be me. I mean, two years ago it is super
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: shy talking to the camera and all I'm look at you,
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: look at you now. Yeah, it's a it's a great improvement.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: And yeah, it just it's just nice to to hear
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: just good things and thank you, thanks a lot.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so good.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: Alan the youngest to make the third round here since
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty one, and that guy was Carlos Alchoriz.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Joel fan Sega, thank you so much.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Can we get to love everybody,