Champions Gather in Sao Paulo
Last year’s beaten finalist Marcelo Rios and 2007 Champion Sergi Bruguera are amongst the eight tennis legends arriving in Sao Paulo over the next few days for the start of the AOC Grand Champions Brazil which gets underway on May 21st.
Although the event is now in its third year, 2009 will see the AOC Grand Champions Brazil move to a new venue at the Clube Hebraica in Sao Paulo’s Jewish quarter, where the champions will compete on indoor carpet courts.
Boasting one of its strongest ever fields, the 2009 AOC Grand Champions Brazil is sure to be an exciting few days of tennis. Not only will the event see some of the ATP Champions Tour’s most prolific players battle it out for the title and for the 400 South African Airways ranking points that go with it, but it will also see the Tour debut of Swedish former Australian Open finalist Thomas Enqvist. To follow up-to-the minute scores, news and gossip from Sao Paulo, go to our Twitter page.
Enqvist retired from professional tennis in 2006, and after three years away from the sport now feels ready to re-join his old adversaries on the ATP Champions Tour.
The 35-year-old will face a tough test in Sao Paulo, as he is drawn in Group B alongside Bruguera as well as three time Masters Tennis winner Paul Haarhuis and Spaniard Emilio Sanchez.
Group A will see Rios taking on the previous year’s finalist and Brazilian home favourite Fernando Meligeni, as well as Tour entertainer Henri Leconte. Rounding up the eight-man field is tournament wild card Gilad Bloom from Israel.
The draw has thrown up some mouth-watering match-ups. Tour debutant Thomas Enqvist will be looking to make his mark in his opening match on Thursday, but he couldn’t face a tougher opponent than former French Open Champion Bruguera. Another highlight is sure to be the all-South American showdown between Rios and Meligeni, scheduled to take place on Saturday evening.
All players in each group will play each other over a round-robin format, and after all round-robin matches are complete, the top player in each group will meet in the final. The runners-up in each group will play off for the third place position. Matches are played over the best of three sets with a Champions’ Tie-break (first to 10 points with a clear advantage of two) deciding the winner of matches that are tied at one-set-all.
After Sao Paulo, the ATP Champions Tour will move on to Graz (Austria) for the s Tennis Masters (August 5-9), and after that will arrive in the Algarve (Portugal) for the Vale do Lobo Grand Champions CGD (August 11-14).