João Fonseca advances as a Tennis sensation and attracts brands from On and Rolex to XP

Bloomberg Línea — There is a new sensation in world Tennis, and it is not Carlos Alcaraz or Jannik Sinner, to name the two main stars of the sport’s new generation. Brazilian João Fonseca, 18 years and five months old, has been the most talked about name among the promises on the ATP circuit given his victorious trajectory.

Fonseca debuted this Tuesday (14) in Grand Slam tournaments with a surprising victory – only in theory, actually – over Russian Andrey Rublev by 3 sets to zero in the first round of the Australian Open. The opponent had broad favoritism on paper, given his 27-year-old experience and the fact that he was ninth in the world rankings, while the Brazilian entered the dispute as 112th in the world.

The victory should bring even more spotlight to the Brazilian, who, however, has become better known to those who follow and live the sport for at least a year and a half, when he became champion of the US Open youth and ended the season as number 1 in the world in the category.

In his short but meteoric trajectory, the Brazilian attracted global brands such as On, a footwear and sportswear brand that has Roger Federer as one of the main investors, Rolex and Yonex, in addition to XP Inc. in the Brazilian market.

read more: In addition to Bia Haddad: tennis once again attracts companies and record audiences in the country

“As a brand strategy, we have always closely followed the sports territory. Internal research showed that 80% of our customers are interested in sports”, said Caroline Namora, Marketing Director at XP, in an interview with Bloomberg Line.

In this context, according to her, “positioning the brand in the sports territory and bringing related benefits to our customers is part of the actions we take”.

XP agreed to a five-year contract with Fonseca in June last year, for undisclosed amounts. The partnership includes the player’s participation in tennis clinics with clients and presence at events such as Expert XP in August, in which an interview conducted by Guilherme Benchimol was one of the highlights of the event.

The agreement also includes the exposure of the XP brand on the player’s shirt, which represents a reinforcement of the awareness globally.

Benchimol’s interview with Fonseca did not happen by chance. XP’s co-founder and chairman is a passionate tennis player in his spare time.

“This story [o contrato de patrocínio] It started 12 months ago, when I went to Wimbledon to watch some games played by a 16-year-old teenager called João Fonseca. On that same trip I met his parents and we started talking about that young man’s future. João is a good guy from Rio, with a shy manner and a love for outdoor sports”, wrote Benchimol in a post on LinkedIn at the time.

João is the son of Roberta and Christiano Fonseca Filho, co-founder of IP Capital Partners, one of the main and longest-running independent asset managers in the country, based in Rio de Janeiro.

XP’s Marketing Director explained how the sponsorship decision was made from an attributes point of view.

“We have been following João’s career development for a long time and, when we got closer to him and his team, we realized that there was a lot of identification of values: focus, dedication from point to point, performance, overcoming and the search for achievement impossible”, said the executive.

This was the first individual sponsorship contract for XP, which also acts as the official brand of the NFL and NBA in the country, in addition to the partnership for the Live Run street racing circuit, in different cities across the country.

Tennis is particularly popular in Faria Lima and among Brazilian executives – one of the precursors was Jorge Paulo Lemann, who defended Switzerland and Brazil in the Davis Cup and competed in tournaments on the world circuit in the 1960s and 1970s.

JFL Living, owned by Jorge Felipe Lemann, Jorge Paulo’s son, was one of the companies that supported the athlete over the last two years.

Fonseca comes from a streak of 14 consecutive victories, which includes winning the Next Gen ATP Finals, a tournament in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which brings together the eight best tennis players of the season under 20 years old. He entered as the youngest and lowest ranked player.

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“João was one of the first three tennis players we signed in 2023, alongside Iga Swiatek and Ben Shelton. Since then, he has truly blossomed, evolving from a youthful promise into a force to be reckoned with on the professional circuit,” said Feliciano Robayna, head of tennis player management at On, after the Brazilian’s triumph at the Next Gen ATP Finals, in a statement. .

Polish Swiatek, now 23 years old, is the number 1 tennis player on the WTA women’s circuit, a five-time Grand Slam singles winner, while American Shelton, 22 years old, is considered another of the best tennis players of the new generation.

Fonseca’s rise comes at a time when tennis is regaining its strength as a sport followed by Brazilians – on top of results from other players, such as Bia Haddad, Thiago Wild, Thiago Monteiro, Luisa Stefani and Laura Pigossi, among others.

This phenomenon of bringing tennis back to being one of the most popular sports in the country has attracted big brands, as demonstrated in a report by Bloomberg Line in April 2024 on the occasion of Brazil’s dispute against Germany for the Billie Jean King Cup, a women’s tournament between countries, in São Paulo.

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