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Rafael Nadal opens in Rio against Thomas Bellucci

By Geoff Nichols

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Rafael Nadal opens in Rio against Thomas Bellucci

Rafael Nadal returns to action for the first time since his surprise straight sets loss to Thomas Berdych today, as he faces Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil in the first round of the Rio de Janeiro 500 event. Whilst Nadal is seemingly a little way from his top form, his dominance on clay throughout his career will elevate expectations on him in Brazil.

Bellucci certainly has clay court pedigree, having been to the French Open fourth round in 2010 

We have already spoken of how Rio, despite being a relatively minor tournament in the ATP 500 category,  is extremely important for Nadal. He needs to send a message the the rest of the tennis world that he is getting back to close to his best.

It isn’t the kindest of opening round matches, with opponent Thomas Bellucci hailing from Brazil and likely to be buoyed by an excited home crowd. Bellucci has had some notable wins on clay and his aggressive style could cause Nadal problems if he is a little rusty.

Schedule and Draw

The first round encounter is scheduled to be the last match of the day, pencilled in for Tuesday 8pm ET. The full order of play can be seen here for the 32 man tournament. Rafael Nadal is the top seed in Rio and has been drawn in the same half as fourth seed Fabio Fognini.

In the other half of the draw second seed David Ferrer is the headline player and is also very strong on clay. Another Spaniard, journeyman Tommy Robredo is the third seed and has already secured his passage into round two. Overall it is a strong field, stacked with clay court specialists who have travelled to Rio specially to play on the red dirt.

Thomas Bellucci

Thomaz Bellucci is currently ranked at number 64 in the world, although he has been as high as number 21 in July of 2010. He, like Nadal, is a left hander and he is known for his aggressive ground strokes that achieve good penetration through the court, which is especially important on clay.

He certainly has clay court pedigree, having been to the French Open fourth round in 2010. His three career titles have also all come on clay, although the last of those came all the way back in 2012. At 27 years old, the Brazilian seems to be a little way from his best tennis.

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He started his clay court season early and has already made appearances at two tournaments in South America. The first of which, a ATP 250 event in Quito, Ecuador, was fruitful for the Brazilian as he won three matches on route to the semi finals, eventually losing to Victor Estrella Burgos.

Bellucci then went on to Sao Paulo, also in Brazil, where he lost in three sets in the opening round to Martin Klizan. His results so far in 2015 don’t suggest that he is up to the task of defeating Nadal on clay, but the atmosphere, which is sure to be incredible in Rio, means that anything could happen.

Next: Will Stan Wawrinka be a one slam wonder?

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