'Not a mystery': New wave is about to hit Brazilian tennis

(Getty/Minas Panagiotakis)

Brazil has a long and proud tennis history, with Gustavo Kuerten and Maria Bueno carrying the torch for many years amidst passionate Brazilian fandom at the tournament in Rio and other events around Brazil and many a parochial Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup atmosphere.

However, in recent years there has been somewhat of a singles drought, with the main stalwarts being Thiago Monteiro on the men's side and Beatriz Haddad Maia on the women's side, with a few exceptional doubles players in Marcelo Melo, Bruno Soares and Luisa Stefani bringing the vast majority of the nation's success on the world stage. 

But in the last few years, Brazil introduced the world to one of the most exciting tennis prospects in João Fonseca, who has brought hype and fervour with him everywhere he goes.

Yet perhaps even more excitingly, there is a younger crop of players on both the men's and women’s side coming up in Brazil, termed by Brazilian tennis journalist Felipe Mussa as the "Brazilian storm in the future of tennis".

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Four players have had exceptional results. Luís Augusto "Guto" Queiroz Miguel (17) rose to fame this year when he won the French Open juniors before clocking up a win over Nick Kyrgios in UTS in Rio last month. In the semi-finals of the French Open juniors, he faced Leonardo Storck Franca (17), another promising Brazilian junior notable especially for his single-handed backhand.

Arguably the two juniors on the WTA side have even more promise: Nauhany “Nana” Vitória Leme da Silva (16) and Victoria Luiza Barros (16), who reached the Wimbledon junior doubles final earlier this year. Both Barros and Miguel have already been spotted by tennis guru Patrick Mouratoglou and have been training at his academy in the hopes of making the professional tour. 

While Miguel has garnered the most attention so far, with Grand Slam junior singles titles and show-stopping performances at both UTS Rio and the ATP Rio tournament, Mussa believes that it is da Silva who has the most potential of the quartet.

"Because of her strength, I think Nana has the greatest potential. She's just too powerful. It's unbelievable what she can do," Mussa explained to The First Serve. "I believe she's getting better with movement around the court, but she already has too much power."

"She is keeping more attention because of her power for her age. She is serving like a pro."

Indeed, da Silva was part of the Billie Jean King Cup team that came to Hobart last year, and at 15, she showed incredible skill, defeating her Portuguese counterpart before taking top 100 player Kim Birrell to three sets. Her power was extraordinary to witness from the side of the court, and she displayed a fearlessness in ruthlessly attacking the ball that will only continue to help her as she transitions onto the pro tour.

Mussa believes that Barros has also shown a huge amount of potential from a young age, which led to the offer to train with Mouratoglou. 

"We knew when she was younger that she had a lot of potential because of her natural talent," he said. "It was too easy for her to hit the ball. Mouratoglou saw it very early and gave all the structure to her and her family. Now she's living there and getting results.”

For Miguel, Mussa is still hopeful that he will reach Fonseca's level as he transitions to the pro tour, but feels that he has a different game that will need something different to take him to the top, as it is really his mental strength that sets him apart. 

"Fonseca has a kind of natural talent. It's brute. He's so strong and very physical. Guto is not like that. Guto is a very good player and moves very well, but I think he's mentally very strong," he said. "I saw him playing at the Rio Open at the beginning of the year and then at UTS with Kyrgios. It's a little bit different because UTS is more fun and not too serious, but Guto took it seriously.

"I think he already has a pro level, but he's not getting so much attention. I think it's more a mentality thing. He's very strong mentally. Sometimes that's what you need to be a good player, and I think Guto has that."

For Storck, who joins doubles players Fernando Romboli and Marcelo Demoliner as one of the few Brazilians with a one-handed backhand, Mussa believes he also has a lot of potential but will need to manage the one-hander to reach the top echelons. 

"It's very curious because we don't teach one-handed backhands anymore," he said. "Almost everybody plays with a two-handed backhand.

"I asked [Storck], 'Why do you play with a one-handed backhand?' He said, 'Because my father told me so. He forced me to do it because he thinks it's beautiful like that, and my grandfather too.' So he had to do it. Now he's used to it and doesn't change anymore.

"I think Leo is a very good clay player. He's very strategic and thinks about the game. That one-handed backhand can be a weak point for him, but if he can manage with the slice and the more strategic game, I think he can be a very good player on clay."

For Mussa, the success of Fonseca and Haddad Maia has pushed the young players in Brazil to strive for success, and the federation has responded well, trying to replicate the Italian model of providing many playing opportunities for their young players across many levels. 

"It's not a mystery that good players also push other good players in the country, so when somebody like Fonseca shows other players that they can be a pro and reach that level, they think they can do it too," he explained. "In Rio, there's been a boom of tennis academies after Fonseca and Bia.

“The CBT also helped with a lot of smaller tournaments in Brazil. Those tournaments give enthusiastic players the opportunity to play, get wild cards, gain experience and get better. I think it has helped very much."

Another remarkable quirk of these young stars has been their strength in doubles. Miguel has already broken the top 200 in doubles, with the next highest-ranked 17-year-old in doubles being Cruz Hewitt at 704. The next youngest player in the doubles top 200 is Fonseca, which perhaps illustrates this point even further.

Da Silva has already won multiple ITF doubles titles, while Barros has also claimed an ITF doubles title. Mussa attributes this to the strong Brazilian tennis culture in doubles, which is a central part of coaching development for Brazilian juniors. 

"We like doubles. Everybody likes to play. The coaches think this is important for the development of the players. It's something that we Brazilians do because many coaches think it's important and because we train other parts of the game. I think it's cultural."

This is undoubtedly a very exciting time in Brazilian tennis, with four of the most promising young players all coming from the nation, with Fonseca still out in front and paving the way.

With the South American swing being one of the most exciting and passionate legs of the tennis calendar, this has the potential to be one of the things that can keep revitalising tennis and creating stories for audiences to enjoy. And if these players continue to develop at the rate they have been, we might be looking at a tennis dynasty. 

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