Brazilian teenager João Fonseca wins the Basel tennis tournament - great things can be expected from him in the future

(sda) The Swiss Indoors have a young but worthy winner from whom great things can be expected in the future. In his second final on the ATP Tour, 19-year-old João Fonseca (ATP 46) was always in control, leaving Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (ATP 18), seven years his senior, no chance in 1:25.

Fonseca is the second-youngest winner in Basel after Jim Courier, who was about two weeks younger in 1989. In February, the Brazilian triumphed at the ATP 250 tournament in Buenos Aires, and now he took it a step further in the sold-out St. Jakobshalle – loudly supported by the vast majority of the 8,000 or so spectators. Meanwhile, Spaniard Davidovich Fokina's final record has become even worse. He also lost his fifth final. He had match point in two of the previous ones, but in Basel he never came close to winning his first ATP title.

In the first set, Fonseca failed to convert an initial break to lead 2-0, but the southern Spaniard, who has Russian parents, was unable to respond to the second to lead 4-2. In the second set, an early break was enough to make it 1-0. Even after missing an initial match point at 5-3 with the opponent serving, Fonseca remained cool and didn't let himself be thrown off course.

The big Federer fan is the sixth winner from South America, following four Argentinians and one Chilean. The youngest player in the top 100 will move into the top 30 for the first time.