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South America has always been a fruitful ground for talented tennis players, but that has been on a decline in the last couple of years. Chilean Christian Garin was the best-ranked South American in the ATP Race to Milan (U21 players) at the end of 2017, standing at the 50th place, and things are a little bit better when we see the ITF junior rankings, with 3 players in the Top 20. The Argentine Axel Geller is the best junior in the world at the moment and his compatriot Sebastian Baez is in the Top 10 as well.
17-year-old Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wild has been in the Top 20 as well, and he already made some good results on the Pro circuit as well, breaking into the Top 900 after a good run in the Slovak Republic and Turkey, advancing to the semi-final and the title match.
On Sunday, Thiago went one step further, capturing the Turkey F42 Futures in Antalya to become only the third player born in 2000 with pro title, after Felix Auger-Aliassime and Nicola Kuhn, who already made a name for themselves on Challengers as well. This was the 8th Futures for Seyboth Wild in his career, competing in Antalya for the last 4 weeks, and he played some rock solid tennis en route to his maiden pro title, losing only one set in 5 matches, in the opening round.
He needed 2 hours and 6 minutes to beat Pavel Krainik by 6-4 1-6 6-4 and kick off his campaign with a win, despite the fact Krainik won 8 points more than the young Brazilian. Thiago grabbed the first set with a break in game 9 but Krainik fought back with a strong performance in set number 2, scoring 2 breaks for a 6-1 and forcing a decider.
There, Canadian broke in game 3 to build a 4-2 lead but the Brazilian bounced back, rattling off the last 4 games to book the place in the second round. He had a day off and on Thursday he recovered enough to topple the 5th seed Thomas Statzberger by 7-5 6-0 in an hour and 23 minutes.
Thiago lost serve just twice and he took control after a tight opening set, winning the last 8 games of the match to book the place in the quarter-final. Brazilian was too strong for Hong Kit Wong, scoring a 6-2 6-0 triumph to advance into the last 4 after just 64 minutes.
Wong managed to win just 12 points on the return and he had no break points, while Seyboth Wild broke him 5 times from 7 chances, opening the match with a break and never looking back, just like against Statzberger. The third seed Mate Delic stood between Thiago and the place in the final, and Brazilian was too strong once again, beating the Croat by 6-2 7-5 in an hour and 31 minutes for his second final in 4 weeks, saving 4 out of 6 break points and stealing rival's serve 5 times from 10 chances he created.
The youngster kicked off the match in a strong fashion, seizing 9 games in a row from 2-2 to open up a 6-2 4-0 gap, but Delic managed to climb back on the scoreboard and level the score at 5-5, only to get broken again in game 11, which was enough for Thiago to claim the win in straight sets.
Riccardo Bonadio, seeded 4th, was his last obstacle before lifting the title, and the Italian was beaten by 6-4 6-4 in an hour and 38 minutes, giving the teenager the reason to celebrate his biggest moment in a career so far.
Thiago suffered 2 breaks and he earned 4 on the other side to wrap up a win in 2 sets against the rival from the Top 500, where he will be as well pretty soon. Seyboth Wild was off to a nice start, breaking in game 4 for a 4-1 lead but Bonadio broke back in game 7 to level the score at 4-4 and setting up an interesting closure of the set.
Thiago earned a crucial break in game 10 to seal the opener, and that gave him the boost for the rest of the match. Bonadio took the lead early in the second set, leading 4-2 before Thiago performed a nice comeback, winning the last 4 games to capture the title in style. Thiago's road towards the title:
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