João Fonseca crashes, turns on his debut in Eastbourne and takes his first victory on grass

After a tough elimination in Halle last week, João Fonseca reacted on the circuit this Monday with a great victory in his debut at the ATP 250 in Eastbourne, England. The young Brazilian tennis player came back from behind, with a “bagel” and nine consecutive games, to beat Belgian Zizou Bergs, 50th in the world, by 2 sets to 1, with partial scores of 6/7 (8/10), 6/0 and 6/3.

The result marked Fonseca's first victory on grass at ATP level, in his early career on the professional circuit. The triumph almost came last week, when he had a match point against Italian Flávio Cobolli. But he let the result slip away in the third set tie-break and suffered a painful comeback.

In the round of 16, the world number 57 will face a more difficult challenge. He will face American Taylor Fritz, currently ranked 5th and the main favorite for the title, on Wednesday or Thursday. The match in Eastbourne is the Brazilian's last tournament before making his debut in the main draw of Wimbledon, which starts on the 30th, next Monday.

With Monday's triumph, Fonseca became the youngest tennis player in history to win a match in Eastbourne, surpassing Fritz himself and the German Alexander Zverev, who won matches at 17 and 18 years old, respectively, in 2015 – the competition was held in Nottingham at the time.

In an unprecedented clash on the circuit, under strong winds in the English city, the Brazilian and Belgian played a balanced first set, with no breaks of serve. Fonseca had three break points on his opponent's serve, compared to two from Bergs. The decision was postponed to a tie-break.

In the tiebreaker, a move caught the eye during a set point by the Belgian. The chair umpire called the ball out while the electronic challenge registered the ball in. The move then went to the official review, in which the referee confirmed the point for the Brazilian. However, the Belgian was not shaken by the unusual situation and confirmed the victory in the set. Before falling behind in the match, Fonseca wasted three set points.

Undeterred by the missed chances, the Brazilian began the second set by breaking serve for the first time in the match. He then got into a good mood with another break and opened up a 4/0 lead. On the other side, the 26-year-old Belgian seemed unfocused. Fonseca took advantage of the moment, broke again and sealed the deal in just 24 minutes.

Increasingly confident on the court, Fonseca continued to pressure the Belgian, who had just finished runner-up in Hertogenbosch, also on grass, two weeks ago. The Brazilian imposed another break in the second game and made it 2/0, making it nine consecutive games. Bergs tried to react by returning the break. But Fonseca quickly imposed himself once again on his opponent's serve and opened up the necessary advantage to secure victory.