ATP Tour
Greatest ATP Tour comebacks of 2025: De Minaur, Fonseca amongst season-defining escapes
Kecmanovic, Zverev, Brooksby all save match factors
December 05, 2025
Scott Taetsch/Getty Photos
Alex de Minaur saves three championship factors to defeat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina within the Washington closing.
By Jerome Coombe
To mark the tip of one other thrilling season, ATPTour.com is unveiling our annual ‘Best Of’ series, which is able to replicate on essentially the most intriguing rivalries, matches, comebacks, upsets and extra. Right this moment we spotlight 5 standout ATP Tour comebacks (not together with Grand Slams) from this season.
Each comeback tells a narrative of resilience, timing, perception, and momentum. In 2025, the ATP Tour was stuffed with moments when gamers turned matches, tournaments, and even their season round with gutsy performances when it mattered most.
5) Delray Seashore F: Kecmanovic d. Davidovich Fokina 3-6, 6-1, 7-5
Miomir Kecmanovic’s five-year title drought resulted in spectacular trend on the Delray Beach Open, the place he summoned a little bit of his personal scrappy play within the course of.
Dealing with a 2-5, 15/40 deficit within the closing set in opposition to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Kecmanovic summoned the identical gritty defence that his Spanish opponent makes use of so properly, saving two consecutive championship factors with heart-stopping touches. The second got here through a volley that clipped the online wire and drifted in for a winner.
From there, Kecmanovic reeled off the ultimate 5 video games, together with a ruthless break to like at 5-5, to seal his second ATP Tour title, and first since 2020. So as to add to his fairytale outing, the Serbian teamed up with Brandon Nakashima later that day to win the doubles crown.
4) Paris QF: Zverev d. Medvedev 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(5)
Alexander Zverev might have been falling additional behind in opposition to his best Lexus ATP Head2Head rival Daniil Medvedev lately, however he nonetheless scored a win again in memorable trend on the Rolex Paris Masters.
Staring down the barrel of his sixth consecutive defeat in opposition to Medvedev at 4-5 on serve within the deciding set, Zverev rediscovered his personal recreation: massive first serves, forward-thinking mindset, and unshakeable nerve. The German fired an unreturned first serve to fend off the primary match level after which struck a booming backhand to take management of the second, earlier than edging a good tie-break to seal his first victory over Medvedev since Cincinnati in 2023.
Regardless of nonetheless trailing 8-14 of their long-running Lexus ATP Head2Head sequence, Zverev notched a redemptive win: The No. 3 participant within the PIF ATP Rankings performed the best way he is aware of he can.
“Daniil is form of my kryptonite, I don’t like taking part in him,” Zverev stated. “He’s any individual who has had my quantity for the final couple of years. The factor I’m most happy with is the match factors saved, the best way I continued being courageous and within the necessary moments, successful the match myself.”
3) Houston: Brooksby’s brilliance en path to first ATP Tour title
Profitable your first ATP Tour title is all the time particular, however for Jenson Brooksby, it got here after weathering extra near-exit experiences than most.
On the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston, the American survived match factors in three separate matches en path to his first tour-level crown on the clay-court occasion. Brooksby saved one in his first-round qualifying match, two in opposition to third seed Alejandro Tabilo within the main-draw second spherical, and one in opposition to high seed Tommy Paul within the semi-finals.
The 24-year-old’s 6-4, 6-2 championship-match victory in opposition to 2023 Houston winner Frances Tiafoe was, satirically, essentially the most complete win of all of them.
“I am simply somebody who hates to lose and likes to win generally — clearly tennis being most necessary, however even in different video games, and I believe that is simply how I am wired as an individual,” Brooksby advised ATPTour.com. “I simply actually love successful, in order that transfers over into after I’m in powerful positions and possibly you need to lose in these conditions, I can at the least discover a method out of it generally.”
Jenson Brooksby” type=”width:100%;” src=”https://www.atptour.com/-/media/pictures/information/2025/11/20/15/26/brooksby-houston-2025-trophy-lift.jpg”>Jenson Brooksby wins his first ATP Tour title in Houston. Photograph: Andrew Wevers
2) Buenos Aires QF: Fonseca d. Navone 3-6, 6-4, 7-5
Joao Fonseca arrived on the ATP Tour powered by teenage hype and the form of uncooked, relentless vitality that makes you lean ahead in your seat, however Buenos Aires was the place that buzz met title-winning substance.
Towards house favorite Mariano Navone, in a raucous quarter-final on the IEB+ Argentina Open, the Brazilian produced one of the crucial mature wins of his fledgling profession. Fonseca twice rallied from a break down within the second set to pressure a decider, during which he as soon as once more got here again from the jaws of defeat.
At 3-5, 15/40, the then-18-year-old saved two consecutive match factors — the second with a drilled backhand winner — to flip the match, successful the subsequent 4 straight video games to succeed in the semi-finals. Two days later, he downed one other Argentine, Francisco Cerundolo, within the closing to turn into the youngest South American to win a tour-level title within the ATP Tour period (since 1990).
“These are the victories that we work for,” Fonseca stated after his quarter-final win. “I used to be not taking part in my finest and I fought till the tip. For the reason that starting I used to be believing I may win, even when I wasn’t taking part in my finest, however I fought and now I’m within the semi-finals.”
1) Washington F: De Minaur d. Davidovich Fokina 5-7, 6-1, 7-6(3)
If comebacks outline character, Alex de Minaur’s championship-match victory on the Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington was a pure reflection of the Australian’s on-court resilience.
Along with his tenth title on the road, the Australian fought off three championship factors in opposition to Davidovich Fokina in an exciting closing set, together with one so tight he was simply 16 millimetres from defeat. However a determined lob clipped the sideline, and he didn’t look again.
De Minaur had already battled to interrupt again when Davidovich Fokina tried to serve for the match at 5-3, 30/0. Then, in a mammoth 10-minute return recreation stuffed with Deuces, he saved all three championship factors earlier than ultimately touchdown a tie-break and delivering extra closing heartbreak for Davidovich Fokina, who fell to his third defeat at that stage of a event in 2025.
“I simply backed myself and I advised myself to commit it doesn’t matter what and if I misplaced this match it was going to be on my phrases,” De Minaur stated. “Right this moment it went my method. I’ve had a few brutal ones not go my method, so I am glad this one went my method.”
