Brazilian 19-year-old Joao Fonseca beat Jaume Munar 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 to reach the first ATP 500 final of his career at the Swiss Indoors in Basel.
Fonseca has become the first player the third teenager to reach the final at the Swiss Indoors after Roger Federer in 2000 and Holger Rune in 2022.
Both players held on their serve without facing any break points in the first set. Fonseca earned his only mini-break to win the tie-break 7-4.
Munar broke serve in the third game of the second set to take a 2-1 lead. The Spaniard held on his next two service games to open up a 4-2 lead. Fonseca broke twice to win five of the next six games. The South American player sealed the win on his first match point with his 39th winner. He has become the first Brazilian player to reach an ATP 500 title since the introduction of these series in 2009.
“I knew that it was going to be a tough match, Jaume is playing [wel]l on this surface. He’s putting a lot of pressure, and you need to defend a lot of the time. I don’t like playing against those guys because I like to play aggressive and go for winners.I’m happy with how I stayed mentally after an early break in the second set. I’m very happy, so let’s stay hyped for the final, said Fonseca in the post-match interview.
Fonseca set up a title match against Alejandro Davdovich Fokina, who was leading 7-6 (7-4) 3-1 when his opponent Ugo Humbert retired from the match due to an injury issue. The first set went on serve with no breaks en route to the tie-break. Davidovich Fokina earned his only mini-break to win the tie-break 7-4. The Spaniard broke serve in the second game to take a 3-1 lead in the second set before Humbert retired from the match.
Davidovich Fokina becomes the fifth player to reach four tour-level finals this season joining Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Felix Auger Aliassime and Alexander Bublik.
Davidovich Fokina is the second Spanish player in Basel tournament history after Rafael Nadal in 2015.
Fonseca is chasing his second title this year following his win in Buenos Aires last February.
