Thomaz Bellucci life and biography

Thomaz Cocchiarali Bellucci , a professional tennis player, is the top ranked Brazilian tennis player. He achieved a career high ranking of #21 on July 26, 2010.

CAREER:

2010:
Thomaz entered the first tournament of the season, the Brisbane International ATP tournament worth 250 points. He made the quarter-finals after being narrowly edged out by Czech Tomáš Berdych 6-7(4) 6-2 6-7(3). On Heineken Open, at Auckland, he lost to Philipp Kohlschreiber 6/4 6/1 on second round after beating Marco Chiudinelli on a two sets game. Lost to Andy Roddick at the 2010 Australian Open 2nd round.

Going to the Latin America clay tournaments, on 2010 Movistar Open, at Chile, Bellucci defeated defending champion Fernando González in the semifinals and Juan Mónaco in the final match to capture his second tour title. In the 2010 Brasil Open He lost to comaptriot Ricardo Mello in the Quarterfinals. He then played in 2010 Abierto Mexicano Telcel losing in the second round to eventual champion David Ferrer 6-4, 6-1. In the 2010 BNP Paribas Open after receiving a bye in the first round and a walkover in the second round he lost to Guillermo García López 4-6, 6-2, 6-1. In the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open he upset James Blake in the second round and then won over Olivier Rochus but lost in a hard match to a Spaniard for the third straight time this time to Nicolás Almagro losing 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(3) in the Fourth Round. In Monte Carlo he lost to Philipp Kohlschreiber in the First Round in three sets 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(3). In ATP 500 Barcelona reached the Quarterfinals, losing to David Ferrer after defeating Jarkko Nieminen, Victor Hănescu and Guillermo García López. In Rome Masters 1000, defeated Leonardo Mayer, John Isner, and lost to world #2, Novak Djokovic in third round.

He continued in good form at the 2010 French Open. Thomaz reached the fourth round, losing to World Number 2 and former French Open champion Rafael Nadal. He lost in a closely fought battle 2-6, 5-7, 4-6 bringing the match to over 2 and a half hours. On route to the 4th round he defeated 14th seed Ivan Ljubičić 7-6, 6-2, 6-4 in third round, Spanish qualifier, Pablo Andújar 1-6, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 in second round Michaël Llodra 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 in the first round. Reached the third round in Wimbledon, losing to Robin Soderling, and lost a marathon quarterfinal at ATP 500 event in Hamburg to Seppi.

At the US Open, Thomaz started promisingly, beating American Tim Smyczek in straight sets, 6-3, 7-5, 7-6(6). However, after a gruelling 3h51m battle with South African Kevin Anderson, he succumbed in a fifth set tiebreaker, 6-7(4), 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(2).

2011:
At the 2011 BNP Paribas Open, after getting a first round bye as the 26th seed, he managed to win his opening second round match against Benjamin Becker 6-3, 7-6(5) but was unable to progress further as he was dumped out 3-6, 2-6 by Tomas Berdych in the third round.

After this, Bellucci's worrying form continued as he bowed out in the opening rounds of the next three tournaments; at the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open 6-2, 4-6, 6-7(6) to James Blake (in the second round after receiving a first round bye due to being seeded 27th), the 2011 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters 3-6, 2-6 to Gilles Simon, and at the 2011 Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell 5-7, 3-6 to Santiago Giraldo.

He also appeared at the 2011 Estoril Open, and struggled unconvincingly through to the quarterfinals by beating two players who were outside the top 100. There in the quarterfinals, he lost out to Pablo Cuevas 4-6, 2-6.

Bellucci then finally found a rich vein of form when he appeared at the Madrid Open, managing to claim solid wins over in-form Pablo Andujar 6-4, 6-2 and also an in-form Florian Mayer 6-7(5), 6-3, 3-0 who retired due to fatigue. At the third round, he produced a cool-headed performance to defeat World Number 4 Andy Murray 6-4, 6-2 to claim his first top 5 win. The following day in the quarterfinals, he backed up his win by producing a brutal display to dismiss World Number 7 Tomáš Berdych 7-6(2), 6-3 (for the first time in three meetings and notably avenging the loss at Indian Wells) to reach the semifinals of a ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament for the first time in his career, and also produce back-to-back wins over top 10 opponents for the first time in his career. Bellucci ended up losing to eventual champion Novak Djokovic, who is still yet to be defeated this season. The Brazilian controlled the match at the beginning, taking the first set 6-4 and going up a break for a 3-1 lead in the second set, but the Serbian fought back and eventually won 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, extending his winning streak in 2011 to 31 matches, and later to 32 matches after upsetting Nadal in the final to end the Spaniard's 37-match clay winning streak. After Bellucci's semifinal effort in Madrid, it marked eight years since a Brazilian reached a semifinal stage in a Masters Series event, the last Brazilian being former World No.1 Gustavo Kuerten who appeared in the 2003 Indian Wells final, where he lost to Lleyton Hewitt.

Bellucci's next tournament is the Rome Masters where he is set to face local qualifier Paolo Lorenzi in the first round, and hopes for a potential second round clash against Rafael Nadal.

PERSONAL:
Full name is Thomaz Cocchiarali Bellucci
Father, Ildebrando, is a salesman; mother, Maria Regina, is a business owner
Has one older sister, Beatriz
A member of his country's Davis Cup team and has a 4-5 career singles mark in five ties
Considers serve and forehand as strengths and favorite surface is clay
During junior career, reached finals in Ecuador and Venezuela in 2004 and ranked a career-best No. 15 in world junior rankings in January 2005
Future goal is to break Top 20
Was coached by Joao Zwetsch until 24 October 2010
Coached by Larri Passos since December 2010.

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