Brazil’s Joao Fonseca has ended his 2025 season after opting to withdraw from next week’s Athens Open due to injury.
The 19-year-old confirmed on Thursday that he will not be playing at the ATP 250 event in Greece, which is set to be headlined by Novak Djokovic. According to GE Global, Fonseca is set to receive treatment for lower back pain, which bothered him during this week’s Paris Masters, where he won his opening match before losing to 10th seed Karen Khachanov. There has been no public disclosure of the type of back treatment he will undergo.
“Ending the season feeling very proud of the work my team and I accomplished. I’m very grateful for everything that happened this year, which was full of experiences and lessons I’ll carry into the next steps of my career,” Fonseca wrote in an Instagram post.
“Thanks to my team for their commitment, to my family and sponsors for their support, and to everyone who cheered me on. This is just the beginning.”
Fonseca has enjoyed a rapid rise over the past 12 months. At the start of 2025, he was ranked 145th in the world and is now at a career-high 28th. In his first full season, he claimed his first Grand Slam main draw win, as well as his maiden victory over a top 10 player (Andrey Rublev), at the Australian Open. A few weeks later, he won his first ATP title at the Argentina Open to become the youngest South American Tour-level champion since Perez-Roldan in 1987.
However, it was in his penultimate tournament of 2025 when Fonseca won the biggest title of his career at the Swiss Indoors. He is the first player from Brazil to win an event categorized as an ATP 500 or above since 2001, when Gustavo Kuerten won the Cincinnati Masters.
Heading into the off-season, the youngster is set to play at least one exhibition event in America. That will be the Miami Invitational on December 8th, where he is set to take on Carlos Alcaraz in a best-of-three sets match.
Fonseca has achieved a win-loss record of 26-16 this year, earning more than $2.5M in prize money. He reached the third round at both the French Open and Wimbledon.
