Joao Fonseca is a name on everyone’s lips after a stunning rise in recent months, with the Brazilian now well-established inside the top 100.
And, while he could break records for years to come on the court, he has already broken one off it.
Fonseca is now the youngest tennis player to break one million followers on Instagram, eclipsing some of the biggest names in the sport.
4) Coco Gauff – 19 years, 6 months (September 2023)
Gauff has been prominent in tennis since her stunning run to the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2019, making it easy to forget that she is still only 21.
And, it is also easy to forget that she was only 19 when she lifted her first Grand Slam singles title at the US Open back in 2023, coming from a set down to beat Aryna Sabalenka in the final.
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Interest in the US star surged during that run in New York, and she cracked one million Instagram followers off the back of her win, aged 19 years and six months.
Gauff now has 1.8 million followers on Instagram and was the highest-paid female athlete in the world in 2024.
3) Carlos Alcaraz – 19 years (May 2022)
Perhaps the biggest tennis star in the world as we speak, Alcaraz has won four Grand Slam titles and has been ranked as world No 1 – all before his 22nd birthday next month.
The Spaniard’s first significant breakthrough was his 2022 Miami Open triumph, though his run to the Madrid Open title later that spring attracted the most attention.
Alcaraz beat Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in back-to-back matches to reach the final, where he downed Alexander Zverev to seal a stunning triumph.
Turning 19 during the event, Alcaraz cracked one million Instagram followers at the time and now has a staggering 6.3 million followers on the site.
2) Emma Raducanu – 18 years, 10 months (September 2021)
Raducanu’s trials and tribulations since her US Open triumph back in 2021 have been well-documented, but few can forget just how astonishing that run was at the time.
Ranked 150th in the world, the Brit became one of the lowest-ranked Grand Slam champions of all time, and became the first-ever qualifier to win a major – a feat unlikely to be repeated.
Having already made waves at Wimbledon earlier that summer, her run in New York attracted a significant surge in interest and pushed Raducanu to one million Instagram followers aged only 18.
Raducanu now has 2.6 million Instagram followers, returning to the site last month after briefly removing her profile.
1) Joao Fonseca – 18 years, 7 months (March 2025)
One of the most exciting young talents in the sport, huge interest in Fonseca’s home nation of Brazil has pushed the 18-year-old to new heights in terms of star power.
Brazilian interest in Fonseca culminated in his Miami Open campaign, where he received huge support in the third round.
However, his success has been building for a while, winning the ATP Next Gen Finals in 2024 and a first ATP title in Buenos Aires back in February 2025.
Fonseca has now hit a million followers on Instagram, beating Raducanu’s milestone by three months.