Thomaz Bellucci
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| Country |  Brazil |
|
| Residence | São Paulo, Brazil | |
| Date of birth | 30 December 1987 | |
| Place of birth | Tietê, Brazil | |
| Height | 1.87 m (6 ft 11⁄2 in) | |
| Weight | 80 kg (180 lb/13 st) | |
| Turned pro | 2005 | |
| Plays | Left-handed; two-handed backhand | |
| Career prize money | US $117,172 | |
| Singles | ||
| Career record: | 2-4 | |
| Career titles: | 0 | |
| Highest ranking: | No. 68 (June 9, 2008) | |
| Grand Slam results | ||
| Australian Open | ||
| French Open | 1st Round (2008) | |
| Wimbledon | ||
| US Open | ||
| Doubles | ||
| Career record: | 2-1 | |
| Career titles: | 0 | |
| Highest ranking: | No. 115 (May 12, 2008) | |
Thomaz Cocchiarali Bellucci (born December 30, 1987 in Tietê, Brazil) is a professional Brazilian tennis player. He used a string of Challenger tournament victories early in 2008 to break into the top 100 in the world as a 20-year-old.
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[edit] Juniors career
Bellucci reached a high of #15 in the world two weeks after his 17th birthday, in January, 2005.[1]
[edit] Professional career
[edit] 2007
Bellucci began 2007 ranked #582, but began a rapid ascent in June to finish the year at #202.
[edit] 2008
The 20-year-old Bellucci continued his rapid rise early in 2008. The first week of the year, ranked #202, he made it to the quarterfinals of a Challenger in Sao Paolo.
Bellucci had little success in his next few tournaments, but in February he got back on track, beating #145 Pablo Andujar while qualifying into an ATP stop in Buenos Aires and then recording his first-ever ATP match win, over #83 Werner Eschauer, before bowing out in the next round to #25 Juan Ignacio Chela. The following week, he beat #130 Ruben Ramirez-Hidalgo and #140 Eduardo Schwank en route to his first-ever Challenger title, in Santiago, Chile, to improve his ranking to #145. The next week, he beat #162 Dick Norman before losing in a Challenger second round match.
[edit] April - May: 17 match Challenger winning streak
In April, Bellucci began an amazing string of Challenger match wins in singles play. First he won a minor Challenger in Florianopolis, Brazil, and made the final in doubles. Two weeks later, he ran his singles streak to 10 matches while winning a major Challenger in Tunis, beating #155 Andreas Beck, #363 Martin Verkerk, #136 Paul Capdeville, #113 Nicolas Massu, and #175 Dusan Vemic, and also won the doubles title. Those wins got him into the top 100 for the first time at #100. The following week, at a minor Challenger in Rabat, Morocco, he ran his streak to 15 matches while beating #136 Capdeville again, #96 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, and #119 Martin Vassallo-Arguello to win the title and get his ranking to #81. His streak ended at 17 matches the next week, after beating #128 Rik de Voest to reach the quarterfinals of a challenger in Bordeaux, France, when he finally lost to #111 Igor Kunitsyn, improving Bellucci's ranking to #75.
[edit] French Open
In late May, he qualified into his first French Open, but drew the most unlucky spot in the draw, losing to 3-time defending champion #2 Rafael Nadal in the first round.
