Bellucci Overcomes Lapentti In Santiago

Third-seed Thomaz Bellucci rallied to beat veteran Nicolas Lapentti in an extremely evil first-round matchup. After 1 hour and 46 minutes of play, Bellucci bested the veteran from Ecuador 3-6 6-1 6-1.

The top-ranked Brazilian is holding steady in the top 40 and is starting out the year well. The world no. 35 advanced to the quarterfinals in Brisbane where he lost to Tomas Berdych and then advanced to the second round of the Australian Open where he lost to Andy Roddick. The 22 year old is now beating the players he should beat, but now he needs to overcome the top 30 players.

Up next for the Brazilian is Chilean Paul Capdeville, who had a much easier time with a qualifier in his first-round matchup. The two players have never met in ATP action but did meet twice on the challenger circuit. Bellucci won both of those meetings by the way.

Tuesday’s Results
Singles First Round
1 Fernando Gonzalez (CHI) def. Oscar Hernandez (ESP) 6-2 6-1
3 Thomaz Bellucci (BRA) def. Nicolas Lapentti (ECU) 3-6 6-1 6-1
Ricardo Mello (BRA) def. 4 Pablo Cuevas (URU) 7-6(5) 6-3
Lukasz Kubot (POL) def. 5 Horacio Zeballos (ARG) 3-6 7-5 6-3
6 Jose Acasuso (ARG) def. WC Hans Podlipnik-Castillo (CHI) 6-1 6-1
Q Joao Souza (BRA) def. 7 Simon Greul (GER) 3-6 6-4 7-6(5)
Eduardo Schwank (ARG) def. Paolo Lorenzi (ITA) 4-6 7-6(3) 6-3
Pere Riba (ESP) def. Santiago Ventura (ESP) 6-3 7-5
Paul Capdeville (CHI) def. WC Cristobal Saavedra-Corvalan (CHI) 4-6 6-2 6-1
Q David Marrero (ESP) def. Q Juan-Martin Aranguren (ARG) 7-6(4) 2-6 7-6(2)
Q Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo (ESP) def. Victor Crivoi (ROU) 6-4 6-2

Doubles First Round
1 L. Kubot (POL)/O. Marach (AUT) def. J. Chela (ARG)/S. Ventura (ESP) 6-3 7-6(7)
S. Greul (GER)/P. Luczak (AUS) def. R. Ramirez Hidalgo (ESP)/E. Schwank (ARG) 7-6(3) 6-4
B. Dabul (ARG)/P. Lorenzi (ITA) vs WC S. Gonzalez (MEX)/N. Massu (CHI) – TBD

Wednesday's Order of Play

(Image: El Mercurio)