The 2016 Brasil Open is a place for claycourt specialists to try to rack up points before the month of March witnesses some significant hardcourt tournaments in California and Florida. Remember that if you’re betting this event, you’ll want to find players that are well-equipped to succeed on clay. This is a surface that plays the slowest on the Tour as the ball slows down here. That’s compared to grass and the hard surface, which speeds up the play. As a result, power players don’t do so well on clay as their biggest benefits – fast serves and strong ground strokes – are slowed down. However, players who rely on defense and speed do exceptional well on clay. As a result, you’ll want to look for players that exhibit those traits.
So which players will gain points and win some six-figure paychecks before the tour leaves South America, which also hosted a clay event last week in Buenos Aires? The competition in the 28-player main draw began on Sunday, February 21.
Event Details
Event: Brasil Open
Category: ATP 250 Series
Date: February 22 – 28, 2016
Location: Complexo Desportivo Constâncio Vaz Guimarães – Sao Paulo, Brazil
The 2016 Brasil Open will be the 16th edition of the tournament since it began at a previous location, the Costa do Sauipe. The new venue is the Complexo Desportivo Constâncio Vaz Guimarães in Sao Paulo, which began hosting the event in 2012.
With a prize money allotment of $499,055, the purse is not that significant, and it shouldn’t be for a 250-point tournament, especially one which is played at a time of year when hardcourts are the main surface and attract the bigger fields with the better players. That’s the main reason why this tournament does not attract the biggest names on the Tour. Unless the money or the points improve, we’re going to continue to see a lot of B-level clay-court specialists at the Brasil Open.
The points structure in a 250-point tournament offers 250 points towards the winner’s ranking. A runner-up finish is worth 150 points. A semifinal result is 90 points, and a quarterfinal appearance offers 45 points.
Former Champions and Results (5 Years)
Year Champion Runner-up Score
2015 – Pablo Cuevas def. Luca Vanni – 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (4)
2014 – Federico Delbonis def. Paolo Lorenzi – 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
2013 – Rafael Nadal def. David Nalbandian – 6-2, 6-3
2012 – Nicolas Almagro def. Filippo Volandri – 6-3, 4-6, 6-4
2011 – Nicolas Almagro def. Alexandr Dolgopolov — 6-3, 7-6 (3)
Player Info:
One of the headliners here is Fabio Fognini, whose best surface is easily clay. It’s true that Fognini beat Rafael Nadal on hardcourts at the U.S. Open last September, but he’s still a dirt demon more than anything else. He is making a good choice to play here as there is a very good chance that he comes away with the crown. Local fan favorite Thomaz Bellucci will try to make a deep run and give his fellow Brazilians something to shout about in Sao Paulo. Pablo Cuevas, the defending champion and a South American, will try to defend his title here. His groundstrokes are impressive, but he regularly gets tight under pressure, which likely will be his undoing at this event. 2014 champion Federico Delbonis will also be in this event, trying to wrest back what Cuevas took away from him last year. Nicolas Almagro, who has won two of the last five titles here, will also compete. Almagro made the final of the Buenos Aires tournament and lost to Dominic Thiem of Austria and also excels on the clay court surface.
Complexo Desportivo Constâncio Vaz Guimarães
The Complexo Desportivo Constâncio Vaz Guimarães allows for indoor play. Sao Paulo can be very wet in the month of February, so after more than 10 years with an outdoor stadium, event organizers decided to move to this new facility, with a rounded “bullring-style” seating alignment, to usher the tournament into the future and create a much more agreeable experience for paying spectators. The other benefit is that players don’t have to be made to wait. Since big tournaments exist in the United States in early March, the event does not want its final match delayed into Monday of the following week.
