Former ATP top 40 player JJ Wolf was shockingly eliminated at the Mardy Fish ITF Vero Beach $15,000 pro tournament by an unranked player who was “28 spots deep as an alternate into the qualifying draw last Sunday” according to director Randy Walker.
This ranks as one of the biggest upsets in pro tennis. Wolf won the first eight games of the match and was in control 60 20 against unknown Joachim Almeida of Brazil. The Sea Oaks Beach And Tennis Club crowd feared Almeida was going to lose 60 60.
24 year old Almeida, career best ATP ranking 1244, finally earned himself a game against Wolf. Then another and another. Then Wolf started misfiring. Wolf failed to serve out the match at 65 in the second set and also failed to close out two match points in the tiebreaker (one ball landed right on the line) and Almeida won the second-set tiebreaker 97.
Wolf, on the comeback trail after a year off due to a shoulder injury, asked to see the trainer and after one game in the third set, retired and gave the match to Almeida.
Almeida is such an obscurity he was the 28th alternate just to get in the 32-player QUALIFYING tournament with NO ATP RANKING and NO ITF POINTS and he only got into qualifying based on his WORLD TENNIS NUMBER (the ITF’s version of UTR).
After winning his first qualifying match 60 60 against a player seeded in the qualifying, he won his final-round qualifying match 13-11 in the match tiebreaker. Then he saved four match points in defeating Strong Kirchheimer in the first round 76 in third set tiebreaker and Matthew Segura in the second round in a tight three-setter, handing Segura his first loss in 24 matches played in his career at Sea Oaks Beach And Tennis Club, before then saving two match points against Wolf before advancing to face Quinn Vandecasteele in the semis today.
This kind of shock upset of a total unknown vs an established name will send shockwaves through the tennis community and surely inspire many other Rocky Balboas and underdog nobodies to step and be pull a Joachim Almeida.
In Almeida’s only pro match since Jan 2025, he lost 5-10 in a third set tiebreaker two weeks ago in the Orlando $15k first round. This week he has won five matches. It just goes to show that confidence can blossom in the blink of an eye.
Photo by Randy Walker.
ITF · JJ Wolf · Joachim Almeida · Mardy Fish