The ATP World Tour rolls along this week with another sizzling tournament, this time coming from beautiful Sao Paolo for the 2016 Brasil Open.
This week’s event will have a clay court as its battleground, and as such, we can expect one of the many Spaniards and Latin Americans – who excel on this type of surface – to bring home a much-needed title on Sunday.
Which of the lesser-known clay-court specialists have the best chances of emerging victorious in Brazil? Let’s run down three particular sleepers that can likely net you a great haul this weekend.
Afterwards, head on over to our complete preview of the Brasil Open to get a broader view of the South American spectacle ahead.
Argentina’s Federico Delbonis has got to be thrilled to be a part of the festivities in Sao Paolo, as he has had great success at the Brasil Open in the past.
Entering the tournament as the fourth seed, the 25-year-old is in good position to come away with another victory at the Complexo Desportivo Constâncio Vaz Guimarães. In fact, Delbonis’ first and only win at the ATP World Tour level was at this exact event in 2014 when he defeated Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi.
Furthermore, Delbonis also currently has the best win-loss record to date at this tournament (5-1) amongst all seven other seeded participants. All things taken into consideration, the lefty out of Azul is more than equipped to win his second-career ATP title this Sunday.
Nicolas Almagro
If there’s one player who poses as the biggest threat at the Brasil Open, it’s none other than Nicolas Almagro.
The 30-year-old Spaniard is the only three-time champion at this event, is one of only three players to win on multiple occasions at Sao Paolo, and his back-to-back victories from 2011 to 2012 still stands as the only successful title defense of the tournament’s 16-year run.
Beyond that, Almagro also has some momentum entering the week as he is fresh off a runner-up finish as the recently concluded Argentina Open. To cap it all off, the seventh seeded Almagro also has the most victories at this tournament with 22 – nine more wins than Brazil’s own Thomaz Bellucci behind him.
Albert Ramos-Viñolas
Not much is known about World No. 46 Albert Ramos-Viñolas despite being a coveted player in the ATP’s Challenger circle. However, the 28-year-old seems to have turned a new corner after finishing as a semi-finalist at the Ecuador Open earlier this month, giving him four ATP World Tour victories this season.
That recent result from the South-American tourney also bodes well for Ramos-Viñolas, who boasts a superb 65-15 record on clay at Challenger events over the past two seasons, but just a meager 19-26 record on the reddened surface at the World Tour level during that same two-year span.
It’s also worth mentioning that Spaniards have won the Brasil Open seven times out of the 16 installments of the event. That being said, the fifth-seeded Barcelona native has history on his side and could very much keep his stellar play going this week to finally bag his first career ATP World Tour title.
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