What ranking points will Joao Fonseca drop after early Australian Open exit?

Oli Dickson Jefford 20 Jan 2026 10:45 AM

Joao Fonseca during a match.

Injury issues have disrupted Joao Fonseca’s start to 2026, and the 19-year-old was handed an unfortunate career first at the Australian Open on Tuesday.

Seeded 28th at the opening Grand Slam event of the year, Fonseca was beaten in the opening round of a major for the first time in his young career, falling to American ace Eliot Spizzirri in Melbourne.

Fonseca went a perfect 4-0 in Grand Slam opening-round matches during his breakout 2025, though doubts lingered ahead of Melbourne due to his withdrawals from the Brisbane International and Adelaide International.

And the 19-year-old appeared unable to perform at his best during his opening-round defeat on Tuesday, with 24-year-old Spizziri impressing on his way to a 6-4, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 triumph.

Here, we look at how the Brazilian’s early Australian Open exit could impact his position in the ATP Rankings.

How many ranking points will Fonseca drop?

Fonseca’s first big breakout run came at this tournament twelve months ago, with the Brazilian coming through qualifying to reach the second round — beating Andrey Rublev for his first Grand Slam main draw match win.

The Brazilian earned 30 points for his qualifying campaign in 2025, and then a further 50 points for reaching the second round, giving him 80 ranking points in total.

With Fonseca entering the main draw automatically this year, the Brazilian was unable to defend his 30 points from qualifying.

Tennis News

Australian Open: ‘Timid’ Madison Keys avoids Jennifer Capriati first-round fate

Iga Swiatek’s tactics questioned by ex-stars after opening round Australian Open win

That meant that he would have had to reach the third round to defend and also beat his 2025 total, with a run to round three worth 100 points in the men’s singles draw.

An opening-round exit at the Australian Open is worth just 10 points, meaning Fonseca will drop down 70 points post-tournament, falling from 1,510 to 1,440 points.

How will it affect Fonseca’s ATP Ranking?

Fonseca is ranked 32nd in the world in the official ATP Rankings, though he is now dropping down one place to world No 33 in the ATP Live Rankings after his early exit.

With several rounds of action still to go in Melbourne, it is possible that other players could earn enough points to overtake the 19-year-old.

However, while it may not seem like a big drop on paper, Fonseca has already notably slipped down the ATP Rankings since the start of 2026.

The Brazilian was ranked at a career-high of 24th at the start of the year, but dropped down to 29th after points from his 2025 ATP Challenger triumph in Canberra dropped off his ranking in early January.

With other players then overtaking him after strong starts to the year, he was knocked down to 30th and then 32nd in recent weeks.

There could be further bad news for Fonseca in the coming weeks, with an ATP 250 title to defend in Buenos Aires next month.

The Brazilian became one of the youngest-ever ATP Tour champions with victory at the Argentina Open last February, and will have 250 points to defend at the event.

Absence from the event or an early exit could see him at risk of dropping back out of the top 40, and scrambling to get himself seeded at significant events over the coming weeks and months.

Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for tennis coverage you can trust.