In an hour and 34 minutes, Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci emerged as the champion in the inaugural Geneva Open by defeating Portugal’s Joao Sousa on Saturday. It was world no.60 Bellucci’s fourth ATP title of his career. Bellucci is the second South American to enter his name as an ATP World Tour champion after Argentina’s Pablo Cuevas won the Sao Paulo Open. In the other ATP 250 event that concluded on Saturday at Nice, Dominic Thiem of Austria claimed the title after defeating Leonardo Mayer of Argentina. The match lasted 2 hours 28 minutes and had 36 games with tiebreaks in first and third sets and a solitary break of serve in the second set.
Playing a solid baseline game, Thomaz Bellucci brushed aside a challenge from Portuguese, Joao Sousa to take the fourth ATP World Tour crown. The 27-year old Brazilian began brightly with an early lead by breaking Sousa in the opening game. The Portuguese, however, was in no mood to relent as he broke back to make it 3-3 in the first set. But Bellucci kept the pressure and secured another break. Sousa fought back doggedly and took the set to the tiebreak. The Portuguese pushed Bellucci and had a mini break. The Brazilian, however, raised his game and took the tiebreak at 7-4. In the second set, it was Sousa, who obtained an early break to take a 2-0. The set went on serves until the eighth game and suddenly Bellucci broke back to level the score 4-4. After that, the Brazilian didn’t allow Sousa any more liberty and finished the title match at 7-6, 6-4. By winning at Geneva, Thomaz Bellucci became the fourth player this year outside of Top 50, who has won an ATP World Tour title. His predecessors include; world no.63 Jiri Vesely, who won the Auckland Open, world no. 73 Victor Estrella Burgo, who took the Quito Open and world no.92 Viktor Troicki, who won at Sydney.
In the men’s doubles final at Geneva, the second seeded Colombian pair of Juan Sebastian Cabal/Robert Farah defeated South African Raven Klaasen/Taiwanese Yen-Hsun Lu. In a match that went the distance, the Colombians prevailed 7-5, 4-6, 10-7 in an hour and 40 minutes. Cabal/Farah converted 2 out of 11 break opportunities that came their way and saved three out of five against them. It was the Colombians’ second title after they won at Sao Paulo in February.
In Nice on the same day, men’s singles crown was won by Dominic Thiem in a hard-fought match against Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer. The match lasted 2 hours 28 minutes before Thiem emerged a winner at 6-7, 7-5, 7-6. Both Thiem and Mayer matched each other and the final could have gone either way. The two played 36 games and a closely fought tiebreak in the first set. There was just one break in the entire match and it came in the 12th game of the second set that Thiem won. In the first set, after nothing could be decided until 6-6, the tiebreak ensued. A momentary lack of composure from Thiem allowed Mayer to walk away with a 10-8 decision. The story was nearly similar in the second set until Thiem converted the only break of the match to take the set 7-5. In the final set, the tussle continued and the set went to the tiebreak. This time, Thiem summoned courage and played powerfully. The Austrian took the tiebreak 7-2 and won his first ever ATP Tour Level title.
In the men’s doubles title match at Nice, Croatia’s Mate Pavic and New Zealand’s Michael Venus caused an upset by beating top seeds Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer/Romanian Horia Tecau 7-6, 2-6, 10-8. Pavic/Venus converted two out of five break points that came their way. They also saved 5 out of 9 break opportunities against them in the tough match.
