The long-anticipated Joao Sousa vs. Joao Souza matchup will finally become a reality for the first time on Monday in Geneva. Marcos Baghdatis and Thomaz Bellucci are also in opening-round action.
Joao Souza vs. (6) Joao Sousa
It will be the first meeting between the two guys with the same name (almost) when Sousa and Souza collide in round one of the inaugural Geneva Open on Monday. Both men are 26 years old and turned pro back when they were teenagers, but part of the reason for a lack of meetings is that Souza has mostly been toiling away on the Challenger circuit. The Brazilian is finally emerging on the main tour, with seven of his 26 career ATP match wins having already come in 2015. Souza is up to No. 79 in the world on the strength of a semifinal showing in Sao Paulo and a quarterfinal performance in Rio de Janeiro.
Sousa has been a mainstay in the top 60 of the world rankings since a breakout in 2013. The 51st-ranked Portuguese actually does some of his best work on indoor hard courts and he has not done much since this winter in Montpellier (semifinals, after reaching the third round of the Australian Open). Sousa, who made it to the Madrid second round as a qualifier, is coming off a 7-5, 6-3 Rome loss to John Isner. Souza may have a surface advantage, but he has lost seven matches in a row and has not found the winner’s circle ever since losing the second longest singles match in tennis history to Leonardo Mayer during Davis Cup action against Argentina.
Pick: “s” in 3
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(7) Marcos Baghdatis vs. Thomaz Bellucci
Bellucci and Baghdatis will be squaring off for the fourth time in their careers and for the first time since the summer of 2012. Baghdatis leads the head-to-head series 2-1, but they have never faced each other on clay (all three meetings have come on hard courts). Their most recent encounter came three years ago in Winston-Salem, where Bellucci led 7-5, 3-1 when Baghdatis retired.
The current clay-court swing has been an abbreviated one for Baghdatis, who generally prefers fast hard courts or grass. The 60th-ranked Cypriot has played only once this season on the slow stuff, beating Steve Darcis in the Bucharest first round before succumbing to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Bellucci, of course, is right at home on the red dirt. The 68th-ranked Brazilian picked up some momentum with a third-round showing in Miami and he has parlayed it into a successful clay-court run. He advanced to the Barcelona second round, the Istanbul quarterfinals, the Madrid second round (as a qualifier), and the Rome third round (lost to eventual champion Novak Djokovic in three sets). Bellucci will have way too much confidence–especially on this surface–for Baghdatis.
Pick: Bellucci in 2
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What about a WTA Rome final report? Sharapova won a good match. Just saying
Why do you get so upset that he doesn’t do WTA write ups?
You wouldnt want me to. There are plenty of other sites that do if you need a WTA recap.
There was over 100 unforced errors in that match and less than 50 winners.
this is the first time I have seen 2 players with the same name (almost) on the ATP tour I think 1 of them should be Sr and other Jr to avoid confusion.