Brazilian teenage sensation Joao Fonseca turned down a \u2018mega-money offer\u2019 when he decided to become a professional tennis player earlier this year, Tennis365 has been informed.<\/p>\n
Fonseca has been talked about as one of the rising stars of tennis over the last few years, with the teenager\u2019s huge reputation ensuring he would be a big draw if he agreed to play on the US college circuit rather than becoming a professional player.<\/p>\n
With US colleges keen to get the best players onto their teams, players of Fonseca\u2019s reputation and potential are now being offered big financial pay-outs to agree to delay their move into the pro ranks and commit to time developing their skills in the US system.<\/p>\n
Top junior players have long been offered a chance to attend top class US colleges for free, but now they are being given even more incentive to make the move with tempting big-money offers on the table.<\/p>\n
With all college fees covered and competitive tennis guaranteed in a thriving league system that is producing top-quality junior players, the temptation to delay the start of a pro career is now being complicated by the prospect of a big money \u2018signing on\u2019 fee.<\/p>\n
Patrick Mouratoglou reveals who has \u2018greatest potential\u2019 out of Fonseca, Draper, Fils & Mensik<\/a><\/p>\n What Carlos Alcaraz had to say about Jakub Mensik, Joao Fonseca and Arthur Fils<\/a><\/p>\n This is similar to what we see in other major sports, but it is a relatively new development in US college tennis.<\/p>\n Fonseca has not spoken about the money he was offered to play US college tennis, but he has admitted he faced a tough choice after an offer to continue his development at the University of Virginia.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was an incredibly tough decision for me and my family as I have been dreaming about living a college life in Charlottesville, playing the sport that l love with a wonderful team and coach, but, in the last months, professional tennis called me in a way that I simply couldn\u2019t say \u2018no\u2019,\u201d said Fonseca in a statement on his Instagram.<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough I will not be attending school, I think it is an extremely valuable and viable path for young tennis players [on] their way to professional careers.<\/p>\n \u201cI was never pressured about making a decision towards college tennis. You gave me just the space for this. I can\u2019t thank UVA and coach Andres Pedroso enough for this.\u201d<\/p>\n Fonseca has already made his mark on the professional tennis tour, which suggests he made the right decision over his move to jump straight into the pro game.<\/p>\n He won his first ATP Tour title in Buenos Aires in February and served up some memorable performances in the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in the Miami Open, but college tennis is also proving to be a successful route for some players.<\/p>\n Scotland\u2019s Jacob Fearnley made a big impact on the US college circuit before turning professional last year, with his development period in America helping him to make a quick break into the top 100 of the ATP Rankings.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think that college tennis is in any way a step back,\u201d said Fearnley. \u201cIt\u2019s actually a step forward. You get to work on your fitness, be part of a team and improve on your fitness.<\/p>\n \u201cSo when you come out of college, there is no doubt what you want to be as a professional tennis player. If you use your four years wisely in college, you can set yourself up brilliantly to do some damage on the tour. A lot of the guys are going down the college route now.<\/p>\n \u201cI owe a lot to college tennis. I think all of the experiences I had in those five years, playing against amazing tennis players, different conditions, different atmospheres, different courts, different environments, it all helped me kind of mould my game, and it\u2019s the same on the tour.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has been encouraging for me to see I can compete against the best players in the world and I\u2019m learning a lot about my game and what I need to do to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n Tennis365 understands that a host of top junior players are now being offered big money to move to US colleges, with their thriving and competitive league structure overseen by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.<\/p>\n While a move to accept the college path delays a move into the professional ranks, it is now a hugely attractive route for aspiring tennis players to take as they have a chance to get a great education as well as furthering their tennis development.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: The Emma Raducanu Instagram record broken by Joao Fonseca in 2025<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Joao Fonseca turned down a \u2018mega money offer\u2019 before becoming a tennis professional<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Brazilian teenage sensation Joao Fonseca turned down a \u2018mega-money offer\u2019 when he decided to become a professional tennis player earlier this year, Tennis365 has been informed. Fonseca has been talked about as one of the rising stars of tennis over the last few years, with the teenager\u2019s huge reputation ensuring he would be a big […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}