Bellucci Anticipates Home Pressure In Sao Paulo

© Getty ImagesThomaz Bellucci leads the Green Group with Martin Klizan, Andreas Beck and Bobby Reynolds.

The draw for the ATP Challenger Tour Finals was made on Monday, with the seven qualifiers, plus local wild card Thomaz Bellucci, divided into two groups of four for the group stages of the tournament, which begins on Wednesday in Sao Paulo.

World No. 37 Bellucci leads the Green Group and will face German Andreas Beck, Slovak Martin Klizan and American Bobby Reynolds. Rui Machado of Portugal is the top player in the Yellow Group, with rivals Dudi Sela of Israel, and Germans Cedrik-Marcel Stebe and Matthias Bachinger.

After the draw ceremony, Bellucci, who will play his first match on Wednesday night against Reynolds, talked about his chances and claimed his superior ranking is not an advantage. "It's a different tournament compared to the others and that's why even though I have a better ranking, I don't think I'm favourite to win the title", he said. "All these players come from strong competitions and most of them are hard-court players.

"I'm feeling good, the court is great and I hope to end the season in the best shape, at home, in front of my crowd. I know Beck very well, I faced him in the Bastad final two years ago, but I haven't seen him play for a while. I don't know that much about Klizan, but I practised with him and he seems very aggressive and a good server. Reynolds likes to play on this kind of courts. I'll have three tough matches and I hope to make it into the semi-finals".

The tournament will be played in a round-robin format, with the two leaders of each group advancing to the semi-finals. An undefeated champion will receive 125 South African Airways ATP Rankings points and $91,200 in prize money.

GROUPS

Green
[1] T Bellucci (BRA)
[3] M Klizan (SVK)
[6] A Beck (GER)
[8] B Reynolds (USA)

Yellow
[2] R Machado (POR)
[4] D Sela (ISR)
[5] C Stebe (GER)
[7] M Bachinger (GER)