To mark the end of another thrilling season, ATPTour.com is unveiling our annual ‘Best Of’ series, which will reflect on the most intriguing rivalries, matches, comebacks, upsets and more. Today we highlight five standout ATP Tour comebacks (not including Grand Slams) from this season.
Every comeback tells a story of resilience, timing, belief, and momentum. In 2025, the ATP Tour was full of moments when players turned matches, tournaments, or even their season around with gutsy performances when it mattered most.
5) Delray Beach F: Kecmanovic d. Davidovich Fokina 3-6, 6-1, 7-5
Miomir Kecmanovic’s five-year title drought ended in spectacular fashion at the Delray Beach Open, where he summoned a bit of his own scrappy play in the process.
Facing a 2-5, 15/40 deficit in the final set against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Kecmanovic summoned the same gritty defence that his Spanish opponent uses so well, saving two consecutive championship points with heart-stopping touches. The second one came via a volley that clipped the net cord and drifted in for a winner.
From there, Kecmanovic reeled off the final five games, including a ruthless break to love at 5-5, to seal his second ATP Tour title, and first since 2020. 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 may have been falling further behind against his greatest Lexus ATP Head2Head rival Daniil Medvedev in recent years, but he nonetheless scored a win back in memorable fashion at the Rolex Paris Masters.
Staring down the barrel of his sixth consecutive defeat against Medvedev at 4-5 on serve in the deciding set, Zverev rediscovered his own game: big first serves, forward-thinking mindset, and unshakeable nerve. The German fired an unreturned first serve to fend off the first match point and then struck a booming backhand to take control of the second, before edging a tight tie-break to seal his first victory over Medvedev since Cincinnati in 2023.
Despite still trailing 8-14 in their long-running Lexus ATP Head2Head series, Zverev notched a redemptive win: The No. 3 player in the PIF ATP Rankings played the way he knows he can.
“Daniil is kind of my kryptonite, I don’t like playing him,” Zverev said. “He’s somebody who has had my number for the last couple of years. The thing I’m most pleased with is the match points saved, the way I continued being brave and in the important moments, winning the match myself.”
3) Houston: Brooksby’s brilliance en route to first ATP Tour title
Winning your first ATP Tour title is always special, but for Jenson Brooksby, it came after weathering more near-exit experiences than most.
At the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston, the American survived match points in three separate matches en route to his first tour-level crown at the clay-court event. Brooksby saved one in his first-round qualifying match, two against third seed Alejandro Tabilo in the main-draw second round, and one against top seed Tommy Paul in the semi-finals.
The 24-year-old’s 6-4, 6-2 championship-match victory against 2023 Houston winner Frances Tiafoe was, ironically, the most comprehensive win of them all.
“I’m just someone who hates to lose and loves to win in general — obviously tennis being most important, but even in other games, and I think that’s just how I’m wired as a person,” Brooksby told ATPTour.com. “I just really love winning, so that transfers over into when I’m in tough positions and maybe you should lose in those situations, I’m able to at least find a way out of it sometimes.”
<img alt=”Jenson Brooksby” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2025/11/20/15/26/brooksby-houston-2025-trophy-lift.jpg” />Jenson Brooksby wins his first ATP Tour title in Houston. Photo: 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 kind of raw, relentless energy that makes you lean forward in your seat, but Buenos Aires was where that buzz met title-winning substance.
Against home favourite Mariano Navone, in a raucous quarter-final at the IEB+ Argentina Open, the Brazilian produced one of the most mature wins of his fledgling career. Fonseca twice rallied from a break down in the second set to force a decider, in which he once again came back from the jaws of defeat.
At 3-5, 15/40, the then-18-year-old saved two consecutive match points — the second with a drilled backhand winner — to flip the match, winning the next four straight games to reach the semi-finals. Two days later, he downed another Argentine, Francisco Cerundolo, in the final to become the youngest South American to win a tour-level title in the ATP Tour era (since 1990).
“Those are the victories that we work for,” Fonseca said after his quarter-final win. “I was not playing my best and I fought until the end. Since the beginning I was believing I could win, even if I wasn’t playing my best, but I fought and now I’m in the semi-finals.”
1) Washington F: De Minaur d. Davidovich Fokina 5-7, 6-1, 7-6(3)
If comebacks define character, Alex de Minaur’s championship-match victory at the Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington was a pure reflection of the Australian’s on-court resilience.
With his 10th title on the line, the Australian fought off three championship points against Davidovich Fokina in a thrilling final set, including one so tight he was just 16 millimetres from defeat. But a desperate lob clipped the sideline, and he didn’t look back.
De Minaur had already battled to break back when Davidovich Fokina attempted to serve for the match at 5-3, 30/0. Then, in a mammoth 10-minute return game filled with Deuces, he saved all three championship points before eventually landing a tie-break and delivering more final heartbreak for Davidovich Fokina, who fell to his third defeat at that stage of a tournament in 2025.
“I just backed myself and I told myself to commit no matter what and if I lost this match it was going to be on my terms,” De Minaur said. “Today it went my way. I’ve had a couple of brutal ones not go my way, so I’m glad this one went my way.”
[NEWSLETTER FORM]
Source link
