117 Facts About Joao Sousa

Joao Sousa achieved a career-high ATP singles ranking of No 28 on 16 May 2016 and a doubles ranking of No 26 on 13 May 2019.

Continuously ranked in the world's top-100 between July 2013 and March 2021, and with four ATP Tour singles titles, Sousa is often regarded as the best Portuguese tennis player of all time.

Joao Sousa is nicknamed Conquistador for sharing his birthplace of Guimaraes with Afonso I, the country's first king.

Joao Sousa is coached by former player Frederico Marques and practices at the BTT Tennis Academy in Barcelona.

Joao Sousa started playing in the ATP Challenger Tour in 2008, winning his first tournament at this level in 2011.

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Joao Sousa debuted in the top-level ATP World Tour in 2008, and rose to prominence at the 2013 Malaysian Open, where he became the first Portuguese player to win a World Tour-level singles tournament.

Joao Sousa is the fourth Portuguese player to reach the singles top 100, and the second to do so in both singles and doubles rankings, after Nuno Marques.

Joao Sousa is the Portuguese player with the largest career prize money, and the most wins at Grand Slam singles tournaments.

Joao Sousa was born on 30 March 1989 in Guimaraes, Portugal, to Armando Marinho de Sousa, a judge and amateur tennis player, and Adelaide Coelho Sousa, a bank clerk.

At age seven, Joao Sousa began playing tennis with his father at a local club.

Joao Sousa played football at local clubs Vitoria de Guimaraes – of which he is a keen supporter – and Os Sandinenses until the age of 14, when he decided to give up on football and the goal of studying medicine to pursue a professional tennis career.

Joao Sousa briefly joined the National Tennis Training Center in Maia until he was forced to leave after its closure.

In September 2004, aged 15, Joao Sousa moved to Barcelona, Spain, to attend a boarding school and join the Catalan Tennis Federation.

Joao Sousa was first coached by Alvaro Margets, under the supervision of one of his mentors, Francisco Roig.

Joao Sousa continues to practice at BTT, even after joining the ATP Tour.

Joao Sousa is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, as well as English, French and Italian.

Since 2008, Joao Sousa has been dating Julia Villanueva, whom he met during his training in Barcelona.

Joao Sousa made his debut in a junior tournament in August 2004 at the Grade 4 Taca Diogo Napoles in Porto, reaching the semifinals.

In 2005 Joao Sousa was runner-up at the Portugal under-16 National Championship, losing in the final to Gastao Elias.

Joao Sousa had previously won the doubles title at the 2004 edition in the same age category.

Joao Sousa peaked at number 61 in the world junior rankings in early 2007, shortly after entering the main draw of the 2006 Orange Bowl.

In 2008, Joao Sousa began the season by winning his first professional title at the final of a Futures doubles tournament in Murcia.

Joao Sousa had his first ATP win over Austrian Oliver Marach, losing to Frederico Gil in the second round.

Joao Sousa started playing at the ATP Challenger Tour and for the Portugal Davis Cup team in 2008.

Besides winning two more Futures doubles titles in three finals in Irun and Espinho, Joao Sousa reached his first four singles finals at the same level in 2009.

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At the Estoril Open, Joao Sousa was granted a wild card to participate in his first doubles ATP World Tour level tournament, but lost in the first round.

In 2010, Joao Sousa won his first Challenger title at the Tampere's doubles tournament in August.

Joao Sousa was more successful in the Futures, winning three singles titles in four finals at Valldoreix, Tenerife and Lanzarote, and doubles titles in Lanzarote, Cordoba and two in Tenerife.

At the Davis Cup, Joao Sousa played two more dead rubbers, winning for the second time in three seasons over Cyprus' Christou and losing to Bosnian Damir Dzumhur.

At the ATP World Tour, Joao Sousa participated as a wildcard in the singles and doubles events in Estoril, losing in the second round of the former to Canadian Milos Raonic.

Joao Sousa made his first attempt at entering the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament, but fell in the qualifying rounds at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.

Joao Sousa won three more singles and one doubles Futures titles, making his career titles at this level seven singles and nine doubles titles.

Once again, Joao Sousa was called for two dead rubbers at Davis Cup, winning over Martin Klizan from Slovakia and losing to Switzerland's Marco Chiudinelli.

At the 2012 Estoril Open, Joao Sousa reached the quarterfinals of an ATP tour tournament for the first time, losing to Albert Ramos.

Joao Sousa did not progress past the qualifying rounds at the other three Grand Slam tournaments.

Joao Sousa entered main draw events at the Barcelona Open and the Croatia Open.

At Challenger tournaments, Joao Sousa won two singles titles out of three finals – Mersin and Tampere – and one doubles title at Furth.

Joao Sousa played his first doubles rubber against Israel, partnering with Gastao Elias in a loss against Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich.

Joao Sousa started the 2013 season with his first participation in ATP tour level hardcourt tournaments at the Chennai Open and the Sydney International.

At the Australian Open, Joao Sousa won his first Grand Slam on his second attempt, following a first-round win over wildcard John-Patrick Smith.

Joao Sousa lost to world number three Andy Murray in straight sets in the second round.

Joao Sousa won his singles match against Loic Didavi and the doubles match partnering with Pedro Sousa.

Joao Sousa then played his first clay court tournaments of the season at the Chile Open and ATP Buenos Aires, where he again lost in the first round.

Joao Sousa lost in the first round to former world number 1 Lleyton Hewitt in straight sets.

Joao Sousa was scheduled to return as a wild card at the Portugal Open.

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Joao Sousa's invitation was given to world number 4 David Ferrer instead, which stirred some controversy in Portuguese media.

Joao Sousa returned to action at the Madrid Masters qualifying rounds and at his first Challenger tournament of the season in Bordeaux, but he lost early in these attempts.

At the 2013 French Open, Joao Sousa won his first round match over Go Soeda in straight sets, and lost in the second round to Spaniard Feliciano Lopez.

Joao Sousa returned to the Challenger circuit with a singles title at Furth and an early loss at Kosice.

Joao Sousa missed the 2013 Wimbledon Championships main draw after losing in the third qualifying round to Julian Reister.

Joao Sousa won his first singles match over Maxim Dubarenco and the doubles match with Gastao Elias.

Joao Sousa lost his second singles match to Radu Albot in an epic five-set duel which lasted nearly five hours.

Joao Sousa beat Frenchman Julien Benneteau in three sets in the final after saving one match point, becoming the first Portuguese player to win an ATP World Tour singles tournament.

Joao Sousa officially entered the top 50 for the first time on 7 October 2013.

Joao Sousa finished his 2013 season by being eliminated from the Paris Masters in the qualifying round.

In November, Joao Sousa was nominated for the 2013 Portuguese Sportsman of the Year award, losing to cyclist Rui Costa.

Joao Sousa began the 2014 season with a first-round loss at the 2014 Qatar Open.

Partnering with Colombian Santiago Giraldo, Joao Sousa was eliminated in the first round of the doubles competition by Mahesh Bhupathi and Rajeev Ram.

Joao Sousa won his first singles match against Janez Semrajc, but then lost in the doubles match and his second singles match against Blaz Kavcic.

Joao Sousa made his debut at an ATP grass tournament main draw at the Halle Open.

At the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships, Joao Sousa became the first Portuguese player ever to reach the semifinal of an ATP tour level grass tournament.

Joao Sousa beat in succession Paolo Lorenzi, Mate Pavic and Thiemo de Bakker, losing in the semifinals to Benjamin Becker.

In July, Joao Sousa reached his second-career ATP tour level final and his first of 2014 at the Swedish Open, defeating the defending champion Carlos Berlocq in the semifinals.

Joao Sousa lost the final to the Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas in straight sets.

Joao Sousa was eliminated in the second round of the Winston-Salem Open.

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At that tournament's doubles competition, Joao Sousa reach his third semifinal of the season, teaming up with Romanian Florin Mergea.

At the 2014 US Open, Joao Sousa became the first Portuguese player to be seeded at a Grand Slam tournament, with the 32nd seed at the singles competition.

Joao Sousa started with a five-set win over Canadian Frank Dancevic.

Joao Sousa lost both his singles and doubles matches, confirming the relegation of Portugal to Group II in 2015.

Joao Sousa rebounded at the 2014 Moselle Open with his second ATP singles final of the season, after defeating former ATP top-10 Gael Monfils in the semifinals.

Joao Sousa followed this with a first-round loss to Benjamin Becker at the 2014 Malaysian Open, where Joao Sousa was the defending champion, and dropped out of the Top-50 for the first time in 11 months.

Joao Sousa became the second Portuguese player to reach the top-100 of both ATP rankings, after Nuno Marques.

At the China Open, Joao Sousa lost in the second round to reigning US Open champion Marin Cilic.

Joao Sousa followed it with a debut at the Shanghai Masters, where he lost to Juan Monaco in the first round.

Joao Sousa lost in the first round at the Stockholm Open, but rebounded at the Valencia Open with his second career win over a top-10 doubles team, the defending champions Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares, in the first round.

At the Paris Masters, Joao Sousa suffered another early exit, ending his 2014 ATP tour campaign.

Joao Sousa became the first Portuguese player to maintain top-100 status by playing exclusively on the ATP World Tour in a single season.

Joao Sousa began the 2015 season with an early round loss at the Auckland Open.

Joao Sousa progressed to a third round match-up with 6th seed Andy Murray, becoming the second Portuguese player to reach that stage.

Joao Sousa won his singles rubber and partnered with Frederico Ferreira Silva to win the doubles rubber and close the tie in Portugal's favour.

Joao Sousa proceeded to the final, his first of the season, where he lost to Thomaz Bellucci.

At the French Open, Joao Sousa beat Canadian Vasek Pospisil in straight sets in the first round, and was defeated by 3rd seed Andy Murray in the second round.

At Wimbledon, Joao Sousa was again eliminated in straight sets in the first round by French Open champion and 4th seed Stan Wawrinka.

Joao Sousa's results did not improve in the men's doubles competition, from which he was eliminated in the first round while partnering with Santiago Giraldo.

At the Davis Cup Group II second round against Finland, Joao Sousa rebounded with wins in his two singles rubbers and in the doubles rubber with Gastao Elias.

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At the Valencia Open, Joao Sousa capped the season with his second career ATP title and the first of the season in four final attempts.

At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Joao Sousa won his first match but lost in the next round in three sets to eventual silver medalist Juan Martin del Potro.

Joao Sousa went on to defeat Feliciano Lopez in 4 sets but his run ended losing to a resurgent Grigor Dimitrov.

Joao Sousa trained with Rafael Nadal in the offseason for the second year running.

Joao Sousa started the 2017 season at the 2017 Auckland Open , where he reached the final after beating Albert Ramos-Vinolas, Brydan Klein, Robin Haase and Marcos Baghdatis.

Joao Sousa lost in three sets to Jack Sock, but the result allowed him to re-enter the Top 40 in the ATP Singles Rankings.

Joao Sousa's January ended with a first-round exit at the Australian Open, having lost in five sets to Jordan Thompson, his worst result at this Grand Slam since 2014.

Joao Sousa started the South American swing at the Argentina Open, having lost in the quarter-finals to eventual finalist Kei Nishikori.

At the Rio Open, Joao Sousa crashed out in the first round, losing in two sets to Roberto Carballes Baena, in a match that lasted just under an hour.

At the Miami Open, Joao Sousa entered as 30th seed, receiving a bye for the first round, but lost in the second round to Fabio Fognini.

Joao Sousa's streak remained active in Croatia Open Umag, losing in 3 sets to Aljaz Bedene.

Joao Sousa would go on to have more losses in the remainder of the year and not many more wins.

In 2018, Joao Sousa made the third round of the Indian Wells Masters and the fourth round of the Miami Masters.

Joao Sousa became the first Portuguese player to win his home title in Estoril, after beating Daniil Medvedev, countryman Pedro Joao Sousa, Kyle Edmund, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Frances Tiafoe.

Joao Sousa reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam at the 2018 US Open for the first time in his career, losing to eventual champion Novak Djokovic.

Joao Sousa failed to defend his title at the following 2019 Estoril, losing to David Goffin in the second round.

Joao Sousa reached the fourth round at 2019 Wimbledon for the first time at this Major, losing to Rafael Nadal.

At the 2020 Davis Cup Joao Sousa defeated Romanian Filip Cristian Jianu to record his 200th career win.

At the 2022 Australian Open, Joao Sousa participated in the qualifications to enter the men's singles main draw as a qualifier.

Joao Sousa fell short of doing so, as he lost to Radu Albot in the final round of qualifying.

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Joao Sousa defeated Emil Ruusuvuori in the final to win his first tour-level title since 2018.

Joao Sousa lost to top seed Casper Ruud serving for the match in the third set.

Joao Sousa is right-handed and plays with a two-handed backhand.

Joao Sousa has said the forehand is his favourite shot and that he prefers playing on clay courts.

Joao Sousa is known for expressing his emotions on court at times, often focusing on his coach or the umpire.

Jamie Murray said Joao Sousa has a "good forehand" and "likes playing on clay", despite his better results on hard courts.

Joao Sousa has been described as having the potential of becoming a top-20 player.

Joao Sousa won his first Challenger title on hard courts in July 2013 in his hometown Guimaraes.

Joao Sousa continued his form on faster courts in 2014, with deep runs on grass courts at the 2014 Gerry Weber Open and Topshelf Open, and a final appearance in a hard court indoor tournament at the 2014 Moselle Open.

Joao Sousa uses a Wilson racquet, and is endorsed by Lotto Sport Italia since January 2014, in a two-year partnership which covers the supply of footwear, clothing and accessories.

In May 2015, Joao Sousa started a partnership with sports supplements company Gold Nutrition.

Joao Sousa criticized local government for lack of support of sports other than football.