ATP Rio de Janeiro: Thomaz Bellucci ends his career in front of his home crowd
The Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci will say goodbye to active tennis at the ATP 500 tournament in Rio de Janeiro.
by Nikolaus Fink
last edit:
Feb 18, 2023, 04:43 pm
Brazilian tennis fans can look forward to at least one emotional highlight at the ATP 500 event in Rio de Janeiro (February 20 to 26). Because local hero Thomaz Bellucci will play his last match as an active professional in the coastal metropolis and will retire after the clay court tournament.
Thanks to a wild card, 35-year-old Bellucci, who is currently only 917th in the world rankings, is right in the main draw. The organizers apparently want to say goodbye to "one of the big names in the history of national tennis".
Bellucci won four singles titles in his career and reached a career-high position of 21st. The clay court lover unsurprisingly achieved his best result in a Grand Slam tournament at the French Open. In 2010 he failed in the round of 16 at eventual winner Rafael Nadal.
Against Nadal, Bellucci probably also suffered his bitterest defeat. In 2016, at the Olympic Games in Rio, the Brazilian had to admit defeat to the Spaniard in the quarter-finals after a 1-0 set lead. Just one year later, Bellucci delivered a positive doping test in Bastad . He claimed to have unknowingly ingested the banned substance in a pharmacy-made vitamin cocktail.