'My real dream is just to play tennis,' Joao Fonseca says after winning his first ATP title in Buenos Aires

For an 18-year-old pro, each week is a learning opportunity. From how to serve out matches, to when to pull the trigger on your forehand, to—if you’re lucky—how to hoist a trophy without hurting yourself, every experience is a new one.

Joao Fonseca won’t turn 19 until August, but he seems to be learning everything, everywhere, all at once. Two months ago, the Brazilian won the Next Gen Finals in Italy. Last month, he electrified the Australian Open with a win over Andrey Rublev. During that span, he won 14 straight matches. And on Sunday, he won his first ATP title, in Buenos Aires.

Read more: 18-year-old Joao Fonseca captures first ATP title of career in Buenos Aires, makes history

Fonseca surely learned a lot this week, but the loudest lesson came from the Argentine crowd, which can be rowdy and disruptive when one of their own is playing. While Fonseca had his share of fans in Brazilian green-and-gold, he faced four Argentines in his five matches, and heard more than his share of whistles and cries designed to rattle him. At times, it looked like he might succumb. He dropped a set to Federico Coria in his second match. He was down double match point against another Argentine, Mariano Navone, in the quarterfinals. In the final, he served for the title against Argentina’s No. 1, Francisco Cerundolo, twice, and was broken both times.

By Sunday, though, Fonseca had learned not to let anything get under his skin—or at least not to show it. Like a veteran who knows that any emotional outburst, negative or positive, will only egg the crowd on, he moved quickly from one point to the next, and aimed his fist-pumps straight at his team alone.

What I’m living is just unbelievable. Joao Fonseca

More important, when Fonseca did tighten up, he played through whatever nerves he was feeling, and immediately calmed back down and found his range again. Failing to serve out a final twice would have been too much for many players—young or old—to handle. But Fonseca turned around and played a tiebreaker that was as flawless as it was jaw-dropping, filled with one fearsome, full-cut winner after the next. That included the line-clipping forehand he uncorked on his first match point.

“Unbelievable week,” a grinning Fonseca said a few minutes later, as he heard the roars from the green-and-gold sections of the crowd. “Look at this, even in Argentina there are some Brazilians cheering for me.”

“What I’m living is just unbelievable.”

If every week is a learning experience for an 18-year-old player, the same is true for those of us watching him and imagining his future.

This week Fonseca showed that he can win on his native South American clay. That’s hardly a surprise, but his 14-match win streak came on hard courts, and he doesn’t play a traditional dirt-baller’s game. But his blistering forehands skid almost as rapidly through clay as they do asphalt. If he has a shot that’s still a work in progress, it’s his slice backhand, which can float on him.

At times, Fonseca will be overambitious on a forehand, trying to force a winner out of what should have been a rally ball, and missing wildly. Watching those shots, you might say he still needs to learn when to go big and when to play safer.

Then, on the next point, he’ll be just as overambitious, but the result will be a stunning winner. So maybe teaching him to play it safer isn’t the answer, and just letting Joao be Joao is the way to go. He’s like Alcaraz in that way.

Fonseca’s hero growing up was Roger Federer, but in the full-throttle way he approaches the game, the belief he puts into every giant swing, the pleasure he seems to take in playing, he could be the sport’s first post-Carlitos star.

“My real dream is just to play tennis,” Fonseca said on Sunday. “Of course I want to be No. 1. But my real dream is just to play tennis.”