Joao Fonseca became the 2024 Next Gen ATP Finals champion after winning all five matches he played at the exhibition.
The young Brazilian star has been making the headlines for the past few months, and this year, he even secured some Tour-level wins. Eventually, all of his efforts were sufficient to qualify him for the 2024 Next Gen ATP Finals.
That's a year-end ATP tournament for players aged 20 or younger, and this year, that meant birth year 2004 or later. Seven out of eight players at the 2024 Next Gen ATP Finals were born either in 2004 or 2005, with one being born in 2006. His name? Joao Fonseca.
The 18-year-old Brazilian was the youngest player in the draw, and he was also the lowest-ranked player in the draw. He qualified as the eighth player, only six positions and 26 ATP ranking points ahead of Martin Landaluce, who was also born in 2006.
But in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where this year's Next Gen ATP Finals took place from December 18th to 22nd, it didn't look like he was the youngest or the lowest-ranked player in the draw.
Fonseca's desire to win the tournament was obvious, while the motivation of the likes of Arthur Fils and Juncheng Shang, who are already Tour-level champions, could be questioned, as they both showed that this tournament wasn't the main priority for them.
Fonseca, on the other hand, impressed in every single match that he played. In his first round-robin match, the Brazilian took on the highest-ranked player at the tournament, Arthur Fils.
The Frenchman won the first set in a marathon tie-break, 11-9, but Fonseca was able to win the next two sets. The tournament was played in a special format, with the no-let rule on the serve, but also in best-of-five sets in the first-to-four games format instead of the classic first-to-six games format.
Because of that, Fonseca won those two sets 4-2, 4-1, before Fils won one set, and Fonseca decided the match in the last set to win 3-4(9), 4-2, 4-1, 1-4, 4-1.
He then beat Learner Tien, 4-0, 4-0, 1-4, 4-2, and also Jakub Mensik, 3-4(7), 4-3(8), 4-3(5), 3-4(4), 4-3(5), to set up a semi-final meeting with Luca van Assche, who he bested 4-2, 4-2, 4-1.
Fonseca's final opponent was Learner Tien, a player he bested already in the round-robin stage. The American bested his good friend Alex Michelsen in the semi-final to reach the final of the competition.
This time, Tien got off to a much better start. He broke the Brazilian's serve already in the first game of the match and then relatively easily won the opening set 4-2.
Fonseca, however, was the better player since then. The second set was decided in a tie-break, which the Brazilian player won 10-8 to level the score.
The 18-year-old player then continued his charge towards his maiden Next Gen ATP Finals title, and he almost delivered a golden set to his opponent, winning the first 11 points of the third set and leading 2-0 and 40-0.
Although he couldn't complete the set without his opponent winning a point, Fonseca still won the third set 4-0.
In the fourth set, he was the better player again, winning it and the match, 2-4, 4-3(8), 4-0, 4-2, to lift the 2024 Next Gen ATP Finals trophy. He became the lowest-ranked champion of the competition and also the second youngest to win it after the reigning World No. 1, Jannik Sinner, who won the tournament in 2019.
Although Sinner was born on August 16th, 2001, and Fonseca on August 21st, 2004, meaning there are only five days (and three years) between their birthdays, since the Next Gen ATP Finals were held in November in 2019, Sinner was almost two months younger than Fonseca when he won the title.
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