Matteo Berrettini stepped out for the 2024 Davis Cup Finals as he beat Brazilian tennis wunderkind Joao Fonseca in straight sets, giving Italy the first point against Brazil.
Brazilian teenager Fonseca surprised many with a very mature performance earlier this year during the Golden Swing. He continued to impress every time he stepped onto the court, earning himself some challenge honors along the way.
These days, Fonseca sits on the cusp of breaking into the Top 150 with a 24-18 record this year. His form has been very up and down, which is expected from a player who just turned 18 a month ago, but he's clearly a huge talent, and we'll be hearing his name for many years to come.
The tie against Italy marked the day of his Davis Cup debut, and he took on Berrettini indoors in Bologna, which was certainly going to be a challenge. While the Italian has plenty of experience playing indoors, Fonseca is more adapted to playing outdoors.
The experience showed early in the match as the Italian looked far more comfortable, cruising to a swift 6-1 win in the opening set. He served great, dropping only five points in total behind his first serve in that opening set while giving Fonseca plenty of problems.
Berrettini has had a very good year, winning a couple of trophies. It's just that his results have been overshadowed by some other storylines. Not doing well on the Grand Slam level certainly hurt him as well, but he's been playing at a solid level for a while.
Next year, if his health holds up, Berrettini will once again be in the mix for some of the biggest trophies. But we're a few months away from that, and right now he's focused on getting Italy back to Malaga, where they will defend last year's trophy.
Without Sinner in the team, it's up to Berrettini to lead the Italian team through these matchups, and this match was a really good start. Fonseca stabilized in the second set, keeping his serve, but he still couldn’t challenge his opponent on the return.
Berrettini was dominant on his serve once more, barely losing any points. He had two break points but didn’t use either, so after ten games, it was 5-5. The set was heading to a tie-break, but it didn’t happen as the Italian player mustered up some inspiration to break at 5-5, making it 6-5.
It was the perfect time to avoid a tie-break, which is always a risk. Anything can happen in a tie-break, and just one point going badly could swing the set. It was highly unlikely Fonseca would be able to break, but he miraculously did, and a tie-break followed.
The Brazilian had a 4-2 lead, but Berrettini battled back and won it 7-5 to win the match 6-1, 7-6(5). Berrettini, who has been pretty good for much of this year, put on a confident performance.
He finished this match with 14 winners and 17 unforced errors, which was good enough. As a result, Italy took the 1-0 lead, as they're favored to breeze past this stage even without Sinner.
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