“He possesses all the qualities to become an extraordinary player,” Fonseca said of Jodar, following their first ATP Tour meeting in the recent Madrid Masters third round. No less effusive, Jodar said in the same forum, “He’s a very young player, a great player. So, yeah, I wish him the best of luck for the rest of the season and for his career.”
Those are admirable words but isn’t there something just a little bit spooky about all this, like there would be about lightning striking the same place twice? Unlike Sinner and Alcaraz, the younger men were born less than a month apart. Apart from nationality (Jodar is Spanish) and physical stature (at 6’3″, Jodar is an inch taller than Fonseca), there are few overt differences between them.
Each man won just one junior Grand Slam, both did it at the US Open (Fonseca in 2023, Jodar in 2024). Jodar and Fonseca had both been successfully recruited to play for the University of Virginia tennis team, but Fonseca skipped freshman orientation and turned pro instead. Jodar played one season at UVA, leading the Cavaliers as far as the NCAA quarterfinals on the strength of his 19-3 singles record.
Fonseca has had a rough start to 2026, largely due to on-again, off-again back pains. He lost in the first-round of the Australian Open to a little-known American, Eliot Spizzirri, and won just one match in the two spring South American events, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. But he found his groove again at Indian Wells, winning three matches, and his clay season has been solid if unspectacular.
