Fans Question Why Joao Fonseca Nominated for Laureus Award over Jakub Mensik and Learner Tien: “Most Overhyped Player”

Joao Fonseca joined Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner on the nominees list for the Laureus Awards. Sinner and Alcaraz are nominated in the World Sportsman of the Year category, while Fonseca was shortlisted for the World Breakthrough of the Year. The Laureus World Sports Awards will be held on April 20 at Cibeles Palace in Madrid.

The last tennis player to win the World Sportsman of the Year category was Novak Djokovic in 2024. Sinner and Alcaraz, however, have yet to win this award, though the latter was honored with the Breakthrough of the Year award in 2023 following his successful run at the 2022 US Open, which eventually made him the youngest man in the Open Era to become a World No.1 player. Sinner has yet to win a Laureus award.

Last year, Alcaraz clinched eight titles from 11 finals, including two Majors, at the French Open and the US Open by defeating the Italian. The four-time Grand Slam champion, despite his three-month doping ban, finished the 2025 season with six titles from 10 finals, including the Australian Open and Wimbledon by defeating Alexander Zverev and Alcaraz, respectively. He also defended his ATP Finals crown by beating the seven-time Major champion.

Fonseca, on the other hand, first clinched his maiden ATP title at the Argentina Open by defeating home favorite Francisco Cerundolo and later lifted his career’s first ATP 500 title at the Swiss Indoors by beating Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. The wins helped him reach a career-best No.24 in the rankings.

Fans wanted Jakub Mensik or Learner Tien to be nominated for the Laureus award over Joao Fonseca

When Laureus released the names of the nominees, some sections of the tennis community questioned why Joao Fonseca was shortlisted for the award over players like Jakub Mensik and Learner Tien. Both Mensik and Tien won a title in the 2025 season.

The American ace lost the China Open to Jannik Sinner, but in the Moselle Open, he defeated Cameron Norrie to win his career’s first tour-level title. Mensik, however, lifted a Big Title last year. After losing his career’s first maiden ATP final to Andrey Rublev at the Qatar Open, he clinched the Miami Open by defeating Novak Djokovic.

Check out how fans reacted:

I see what you are all doing with Joao Fonseca. I could name 10 players that deserve that more than him in 10 seconds

— Proper Radgie 🤝 Massive Softie = A Peng Ting (@AttaBoi_Westy) March 3, 2026

Fonsesca over Tien???

— Samika Bhimani (@woodfreepal) March 3, 2026

Hmmm Fonseca had goodish streaks at smaller tournaments but Mensik had a much bigger breakthrough when you take away the fan hype and look at results objectively.

Jakub won an iconic masters 1000 taking out three top 10 players including the GOAT in the same week.

— FifteenForty (@fifteenfortyy) March 3, 2026

Exactly what is the justification for Joao Fonseca being considered for Breakthrough Of The Year Nominee,
what exactly qualified him for this?
How in the world is Learner Tien not up for this Nomination, HOW?

— NTRP 5.1 (@dougwc1) March 3, 2026

Fonseca over Tien or Mensik? Joke

— Scatterbra1n (@rrrrrdn_) March 3, 2026

dont u think this poster has a lot of problems?

— Bertleo (@ArecTouch) March 3, 2026

Damn how much pull does Fonseca family has on the ATP. Bro did bare minimum. Most overhyped player I have ever seen.

— Kevin Darvish (@ElDiablooo66) March 3, 2026

Wait wait…. Fonseca over Mensik & Tien?? Absolutely not

— Lauren S (@lalauren18) March 3, 2026

Mensik also added another title to his trophy cabinet, winning this year’s ASB Classic by beating Sebastian Baez. All of these aforementioned players, including Sinner and Alcaraz, will next be seen in action at Indian Wells.

Andre Agassi warns Joao Fonseca about the Brazilian fans’ expectations

Andre Agassi talked about Fonseca’s huge Brazilian fan base. The tennis great warned the 19-year-old to be wary of the expectations from the fans, which can end up adding a great deal of pressure on him and affect his performance.

I will tell you what I would be reminding him every day, it’s that it’s not his or his job or his role to live up to other people’s expectations. This is not what he should choose to accept. His perspective needs to be one of focus on what he wants and how to get better every day. ‘The brain] is a muscle, and he needs to hear this. It’s wonderful to have this kind of support; it helps so much, but it can also be very heavy. This is something you get to choose.

Andre Agassi said during his interview with New Balls Please

At Indian Wells, Fonseca will be locking horns with Raphael Collignon in the opening round. Last year at the event, Fonseca made his debut and lost to eventual champion Jack Draper in the second round.

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