French Open: Rafael Jodar and Joao Fonseca, 19, on semi-final collision course at Roland-Garros after stunning runs to last-eight | Tennis News

There has been a notable changing of the guard in men’s tennis over the past four years, but are a couple of fresh-faced 19-year-olds ripping up the established order yet again at the French Open?

Prior to Carlos Alcaraz’s maiden Grand Slam victory at the 2022 US Open, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic had combined to claim 63 of the last 76 major men’s singles titles. In the three and a half years since, Jannik Sinner, Alcaraz and Djokovic have shared the next 13 exclusively among themselves.

Until now. There is guaranteed to be a new name on the trophy come Sunday evening in Paris, with a pair of supremely talented teenagers on a potential semi-final collision course in the bottom half of the draw – Rafael Jodar and Joao Fonseca.

But what do we know of the pair taking Paris by storm as they get set for their respective quarter-final matches on Tuesday?

Rafael Jodar

Spanish tennis fans may have wondered who would fill the sizeable, flexed-bicep-shaped hole left behind by Nadal when he and his 22 Grand Slam titles retired from the sport in 2024.

Alcaraz has gone some way to fill that void with a career Grand Slam – and seven major wins – already secured by 22 years of age, but now there’s a Rafael namesake challenging for supremacy in the men’s game, at only 19.

With Alcaraz absent from Roland-Garros (and Wimbledon) due to injury, Jodar has enjoyed a sensational run to the quarter-finals, in only his second Grand Slam appearance.

Jodar was ranked outside the top 900 in the world around a year ago and still playing college tennis at the University of Virginia, but his powerful groundstrokes and natural ability to move across the clay have stood out – and not just in Paris.

There had been hints towards such a storied run in the build-up, with Jodar – still outside of the world’s top 100 in March, but now up to 29th – claiming a first Challenger Tour event title in April, before following that up with a semi-final run at the Barcelona Open and a pair of quarter-final appearances in ATP 1000 tournaments in Madrid and Rome.

In Madrid, Jodar stunned fifth seed Alex de Minaur – dropping only four games in securing his first career win over a top-10 opponent – while he added the notable scalp of fellow 19-year-old Fonseca (more on him in a moment) along the way.

The 6ft 4in Madrid native’s run was finally ended by world No 1 Sinner in the last eight, losing 6-2 7-6 (7-0), but Jodar certainly left his mark on the four-time Grand Slam winner.

“What a player!” Sinner wrote on the TV camera lens after his win, before telling Sky Sports: “Spain has one more incredible player and it’s great for the sport.”

Following Sinner’s shock second-round exit at Roland-Garros, and given Alcaraz’s absence, world No 3 Alexander Zverev is now favourite to triumph – and he’s who stands in Jodar’s way in the quarter-finals on Tuesday.

Zverev is a three-time Grand Slam finalist, and 10-time semi-finalist, who has suffered the misfortune of playing in the era of Sinner and Alcaraz’s dominance, as well as the final throes of Djokovic’s.

But with all three gone from Paris, now is surely his time – unless Jodar can continue to defy his tender years and pull off his greatest triumph yet!

If Jodar was to reach the semi-finals, it could be another teenage tennis prodigy who lies in wait in the final four, Fonseca.

Joao Fonseca

There is a lot to link the 19-year-olds. Both are junior winners at the US Open (Fonseca in 2023, Jodar 2024), the Brazilian is currently one spot below Jodar in both the world rankings (30th) and French Open seedings (28th) and, as previously mentioned, he lost their only prior encounter in Madrid, going down 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 6-1, but he’s enjoyed arguably the more eye-catching run at Roland-Garros so far.

Fonseca took down record 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic in an epic third-round encounter in which he recovered from trailing two sets to love to triumph 4-6 4-6 6-3 7-5 7-5, the match played out over four hours and 53 minutes in scorching heat as the temperature reached 33 degrees.

Of particular note was the way in which Fonseca wrapped up the win, finding himself a break point down to the never-to-be-discounted Djokovic when serving for the match before firing down three consecutive aces to clinch

Fonseca’s only prior win over a top-10 opponent came when announcing himself to the world with a first-round victory over Andrey Rublev on his Grand Slam debut at the 2025 Australian Open

He became the first player born in 2006 to win an ATP Tour singles title in February of that year as, aged 18, he beat Francisco Cerundolo in the final of the Argentina Open final, a result that made him the 10th youngest champion in ATP Tour history and the fourth-youngest since 2000 after Kei Nishikori that notable Spanish duo of Nadal and Alcaraz.

Boris Becker, himself a teenage prodigy when winning Wimbledon at 17 in 1985, posted at the time on social media: “Watch this young man from Brazil. The sky is the limit…”

But it has taken some time for Fonseca to truly soar since.

While a second title swiftly followed in October of 2025 – beating Alejandro Davidovich Fokina to claim the Swiss Indoors crown – he has otherwise struggled to go deep in tournaments until the French, with third-round showings at Roland-Garros and Wimbledon last year the best he’d done previously in the slams.

And Fonseca could, conceivably, have trodden a different path. Talking about his decision to take up playing tennis rather than football, he said: “I really like Neymar’s skills. I loved watching him play.

“But when I was 11 or 12, I had a small injury. I played with older players, but then I fell on my glutes and spent two months injured. I said, ‘mom, I just don’t want to play soccer anymore, I want to continue with tennis.'”

Football’s loss is certainly tennis’ gain and it feels like it’s suddenly all coming together for Fonseca, who impressed with a quarter-final run at the Monte Carlo Masters during the clay-court swing before being beaten by Zverev.

A potential rematch awaits in the final four, or an all-teenage tussle against Jodar, provided he first gets past 26th-seeded Czech Jakub Mensik on Tuesday, himself a considerable talent at just 20 years old who, most notably, won Masters 1000 even the Miami Open last year – at, yes, 19!

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