Joao Fonseca made a sparkling debut at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF on Wednesday, when he downed last year’s finalist and top seed Arthur Fils 3-4(9), 4-2, 4-1, 1-4, 4-1.
Both players batted for aggressive court positioning, working their way inside the baseline and pummeling the ball with hefty pace and spin. Fonseca struck monstrous forehands and held his nerve in pressure moments, including several deciding deuce points — a feature of this week’s No-Ad scoring format, with the server choosing the service box.
”It was a good match. I knew it was going to be hard from the first point,” said Fonseca, who secured his first Top 20 win. “I also knew that the victory that I had against him in Rio would be part of this match. He also knows what I’m capable of… I think in important moments, I played better. I went to the ball and played aggressive like I always play. I think that was the difference today.”
Despite letting slip two set points in the opener, the 18-year-old Fonseca quickly rebounded and rarely looked back, improving to 2-0 against Fils in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series. In February, Fonseca beat the Frenchman at the ATP 500 in Rio de Janeiro, which doubled as the Brazilian’s maiden tour-level win. In front of a raucous home crowd, Fonseca went on to the quarter-finals.
Placed in the Blue Group, Fonseca will next meet American lefty Learner Tien on Thursday. Fonseca, the youngest player in the field of eight, defeated Tien in the 2023 US Open boys’ singles final.
Earlier, Tien sent a letter of intent with his 4-3(6), 4-3(3), 2-4, 2-4, 4-3(8) win over Jakub Mensik. In a battle between two Jeddah debutants, Tien stood firm to deny Mensik a miraculous comeback victory by saving a match point to move to 1-0 in Blue Group.
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