Fonseca Defeats Tien for Next Gen ATP Finals Title; Oktiabreva, Gea, Nugroho, Tjen, Henning Win ITF WTT Titles; ITF J300 Bradenton Finals Videos

Joao Fonseca put himself in elite company today in the championship match at the Next Gen ATP Finals in Jeddah Saudi Arabia, defeating Learner Tien 2-4, 4-3(8), 4-0, 4-2 to become the third 18-year-old claim the title, joining Jannik Sinner(2019) and Carlos Alcaraz(2021).

The Brazilian, the youngest player in the eight-player field, defeated Tien, the second youngest, for the third time in the last 16 months and the second time this week, having won their US Open junior final in 2023 and their round robin meeting on Thursday.

Tien, the two-time Kalamazoo 18s champion, got off to a much better start than in their Thursday meeting, in which he lost the first eight games, but Fonseca won the pivotal tiebreaker, with Tien saving four set points from 3-6 and 6-7, but he was unable to convert his set point at 8-7 and Fonesca evened the match. Fonseca took control early in the third, with Tien throwing in the bulk of his unforced errors in the match during that set. Fonseca was holding much easier--he didn't face any break points in the final two sets--and that proved enough as he got the key break on a deciding point with Tien serving and 2-all and served out the title.

Fonseca, who had committed to Virginia for this fall before deciding to turn pro after a run to the quarterfinals at February's ATP event in Rio, went undefeated this week and took home a record $526,480.00, while Tien earned $336,820.00. 

For more on the final, with quotes from both players, see this article from the ATP.

Tien is scheduled to begin the 2025 season at the ATP 250 in Hong Kong, which starts with qualifying a week from today. He received his main draw entry via the ATP's Next Gen Accelerator program.

Because my December Aces column is always devoted to the champions of the major junior events in Florida that month, I am not able to feature some of the notable results by juniors and college players competing on the ITF men's and women's World Tennis Tour. Today there are five I want to highlight, four of whom won titles this weekend, the other back-to-back titles two weeks ago.

Sixteen-year-old Alisa Oktiabreva of Russia, who I saw at the 2023 Florida junior events (she won the doubles title at ITF J300 Bradenton, losing to Iva Jovic in singles there and Hannah Klugman the following week in Plantation), was out all of 2024, I presume with any injury, until she played a W15 event in Turkey the same week as the Orange Bowl. She lost in the quarterfinals, but this week, at another W15 in Turkey, she won the title as a wild card, beating  No. 2 seed Natalija Senic of Serbia 6-2, 1-0 ret. in todays' final. 

France's Arthur Gea, who Tien beat in the semifinals of the US Open Juniors in 2023, earned his second straight W15 title in Doha today, with the 19-year-old, seeded second, defeating qualifier Savriyan Danilov of Russia 6-4, 6-0 in the final. Gea, who has not had much Challenger-level success this fall, did not drop a set in his ten wins in Doha. 

Former collegians from Indonesia won the only two tournaments above the $15K level with former NC State standout Priska Nugroho, who left for the pro tour after her freshman year in 2022, won the W50 in India, her third and biggest title of the year. The 21-year-old, seeded eighth, defeated unseeded Thasaporn Naklo, the former Iowa State star from Thailand, 6-2, 7-6(3) in the final.  

Recent Pepperdine graduate Janice Tjen, who I will be featuring in my Aces due to her three titles this month, won the W35 in New Zealand and hasn't dropped a set in her 15 consecutive wins this month. The No. 7 seed this week, the 22-year-old All-American defeated No. 4 seed Hiromi Abe of Japan 6-2, 6-1 in the final. 

Phillip Henning, a 2023 Georgia graduate, won back-to-back titles at $15Ks in his home country of South Africa the first two weeks of December. The 24-year-old didn't drop a set in either event; the first week, as the No. 3 seed, he beat unseeded former Michigan Wolverine Nino Ehrenschneider of Germany 6-4, 6-1 in the final; last week as the No. 2 seed, Henning defeated top seed Kris van Wyck of South Africa 6-4, 6-4 in the final.

I have several weeks of work ahead to process the IMG Academy International videos and the Orange Bowl videos, but I did get the two ITF J300 Bradenton finals done today. The vantage point is not the best on the Stadium, with the stands quite far away from the action and the shadows a problem this time of year, but it does provide a better feel for the match when both players can be (usually) seen on the same point.