Novak Djokovic has praised Joao Fonseca for the excitement he has brought to the sport.
The Serb was speaking after his straight sets win over Camilo Ugo Carabelli as he looks forward to a last 16 meeting with Lorenzo Musetti on Tuesday.
Fonseca has been the talk of the tour having won his maiden ATP title in Buenos Aires as well as beating Andrey Rublev at the Australian Open.
Talking about the Brazilian youngster Djokovic praised Fonseca for his work and believes it’s important to have a big star from South America, “He’s been [the] talk of the Tour in the last several months. I mean, deservedly so,” Djokovic told the ATP website.
“He’s a very good tennis player. I mean, so young. Just incredible firepower from both ends of the baseline, serve [as well]. He’s a very complete player. Of course, what is impressive is the way he strikes the ball, but even more so is how he handles the nerves on the court for someone that doesn’t have experience at all playing at the highest level.
“I think everyone knew that he’s going to have quite a support here. He’s exciting for Brazil, for the world of tennis. I was saying back in Australia, for our tennis ecosystem, our sport, it’s super important to have a superstar, future superstar, hopefully coming from Brazil. Such a big country, big market, important.”
It’s certainly an exciting time for the sport to have a talent like Fonseca involved in the sport but he’s not the only one.
There are stars such as Jakub Mensik and Learner Tien who have also shown their talent in recent months.
That is something Djokovic acknowledged towards the end of his press conference, “He’s a very exciting player to watch, but he’s not the only one,” Djokovic stated.
“You have [Jakub] Mensik. Maybe because people talk about Fonseca so much, they forgot about Mensik. [Learner] Tien, as well. All those players are very young, but they have as good of rankings as he does. They’re as good as him. I think it’s exciting, I don’t know what I should call it — that generation, the new generation is bringing.
“It’s always great that you have exciting players to watch and see the players that have potential to reach the greatest heights and to carry this sport.”
Fonseca now has his sights on further progress in Miami as he takes on Alex De Minaur in the third round on Monday night.
