Joao Fonseca and Jannik Sinner played their best when it counted in Basel and Vienna

“There it is!” the play-by-play announcer in Vienna cried. It sounded as if he had been waiting all day to say, or scream, those words.

To be more precise, it sounded like he had been waiting for two hours and 25 minutes. That’s how long the final between Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev had lasted, and up to that stage, there was still nothing between them. The score was 5-5 in the third. Each had broken serve once, and each had won a set 6-3. The rallies had been long and exhausting. They had played 180 points, and split them almost evenly. The title seemed destined to be decided in a final-set tiebreaker.

At deuce, the Italian and the German engaged in another lung-busting rally that lasted 24 shots. The 24th was the most important of the match. Sinner moved into his backhand corner and, instead of rolling back another rally ball, he cut loose with a flat two-hander down the line, and put it right on the paint to set up a break point. After that, the two started up another long rally; this time, Zverev finally cracked, sailing a backhand long. Sinner had his break. Three minutes later, he had his fourth title of 2025 (in 10 tries), his second at his almost-home event in Vienna, and his 21st straight win on indoor hard courts.

“It was such a difficult start in this final for me,” said Sinner, who had to deal with a hamstring issue late in the match. “I just tried to stick there mentally, just trying to play my best tennis when it counts.

“I was hitting the ball well, at times.”

The stats say Sinner was hitting the ball a little better, for longer, than that. He had 46 winners against just 21 errors. Most important, when he needed to, he had the ability to add a little more pace, and a little more risk, than his opponent, and come up with the goods.

Read more: Jannik Sinner's Vienna triumph caps "incredible experience" at Austria's top tournament

Zverev was properly congratulatory afterward, calling his younger opponent the best player in the world. But this match may have been more about the German than the Italian.

It was a full-circle moment for Zverev, as far as his 2025 went. He began the year by reaching his first Australian Open final, only to get blown out of the water in three increasingly one-sided sets by Sinner. The defeat sent Zverev reeling with self-doubt through the rest of the season. He would make just one other final, in Munich, before this week, and his post-loss press conferences turned into de facto therapy sessions, as he talked about his loneliness on court.

So this week has to be considered a win of sorts for Zverev. He showed that he can compete with Sinner on even terms for two and a half hours, and force the world No. 2 to dig down and find his best to beat him.

While Zverev was having a full-circle moment in Vienna, Joao Fonseca was experiencing something something similar 400 or so miles to the west in Basel.

Like Zverev, Fonseca made a splash of his own in Melbourne in January. The 18-year-old Brazilian came out of qualifying to light the tournament up with his first-round win over ninth-seeded Andrey Rublev. It was a “star is born” moment, and Fonseca only added to the mania when he went to Argentina a couple of weeks later and immediately won his first title.

In a post-Carlos Alcaraz world, expectations were even higher for Fonseca then they might have been in the recent past. Alcaraz had stormed the tour three years earlier at 18, belting forehand winners, flying from corner to corner, and finishing the season with a Grand Slam title. Fonseca, with his own rocket forehand, precocious mentality, and frenzied fanbase, looked like he might be ready to follow Alcaraz up the ATP mountain.

Somewhere along the line this season, the samba went quiet. Fonseca didn’t reach another final. He made early exits most weeks. He found out that a serve and a forehand may not be enough on most days. He came to Basel with a decent but hardly Alcarazian 21-15 record. In other words, Fonseca learned the ropes and took his lumps like most young players.

Then, just when he might have started thinking ahead to the off-season, he caught fire again in Basel. By Sunday, he looked like he was taking his cues from Alcaraz again. Fonseca jumped out to a 3-0 lead over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina with maximum aggression. He served lights out, found as many forehands as possible, and charged the net whenever the opportunity arose. He even threw in a Carlitos-like forehand drop shot or two for good measure. It was good enough for a never-in-doubt 6-3, 6-4 win, and his first 500-level title.

Read more: Proud parents change flight plans to watch Joao Fonseca win Swiss Indoors final

Fonseca made nearly 80% of his first serves, hit 29 winners—13 more than Davidovich Fokina—and was 12 of 18 at net.

“Man, it’s crazy,” said Fonseca, whose parents changed their flight and arrived an hour before the final. “We’ve been through a lot. Just want to thank my family, my coaches that helped me to achieve this amazing effort.”

Let the samba, and the Fonseca frenzy, start up again for 2026. You don’t have to be Carlos Alcaraz to be someone to watch for.