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Players born in 2000 are already making their first big steps in the professional tennis, leaving their junior careers behind them and gathering the necessary experience against the better ranked and older rivals. There are 12 players born in 2000 in the Top 1000 at the moment (Challenger champions Felix Auger-Aliassime, Nicola Kuhn and Rudolf Molleker are already in the Top 300) and we had a chance to see the first professional final with two players from this generation last weekend in Brazil F4 Futures.
Joao Lucas Reis Da Silva and Thiago Seyboth Wild, who both turned 18 in March, played great tennis at $25,000 Curitiba event to set the final meeting, losing one set each in the first four encounters. We have already written about Thiago Seyboth Wild, who is the fourth best player born in 2000 at the moment before three rivals we already mentioned, but it was Joao Lucas who stole the glory, ousting his compatriot 6-7 6-3 6-2 to lift his maiden Futures title in only the fifth tournament he has entered! The match lasted two hours and 14 minutes and it was the lower-ranked player who had the edge after losing the opening set, scoring five breaks of serve in sets two and three to emerge as a winner.
He won five points more than Seyboth Wild, creating six out of seven break points and losing serve four times to wrap up his first professional triumph. Jose Lucas drew first blood in the fifth game of the match but Thiago got the break back at 3-4 to level the score and he had two set points on the return in game 10.
Reis Da Silva fends them off but he lost the ground in the tie break, losing it 7-1 and entering the second set with the pressure on his side of the net. They traded breaks in the opening games of the set before Joao Lucas raced into a 5-1 lead, closing the set in game nine to set up a decider with the momentum on his side.
He was the dominant force in set number three, rattling off the last five games of the match to celebrate his first pro title and the place in the Top 1000 next Monday for the first time in a career. The best-ranked players born in 2000 on the ATP rankings list:
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