Two of Brazil’s best tennis players will make their 2022 season debuts today by playing in Australia, which is already preparing for the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the year, starting in Melbourne on the 17th. Thiago Monteiro, from Serra, will play in Adelaide’s ATP 250. Currently 83rd on the WTA list, Beatriz Haddad Maia will compete in Melbourne’s WTA 250.
Thiago Monteiro will start the 2022 season in the main draw in Adelaide. 1 in Brazil will face German Daniil Altmaier for the first time in his career and in case of victory, he will cross against Croatian Marin Cilic.
Brazil finished 2021 with 13 wins out of 29 ATP-level games, with some decent performances on synthetic courts, including the semi-finals at Melbourne’s ATP 250 played in the first week of February. Altmaier is ranked 84th and at the age of 23 he has won only 12 matches of that carat so far.
Only three top 30 players in the ranking compete in Adelaide: Frenchman Gael Monfils, currently 21st, Russian Karen Khachanov, 29th, and Cilic himself, 30th. The fourth major, who will also make his second straight debut, is American Francis Tiafoe. The tournament is played on the same floor as the Australian Open and disburses US$521,000 (R$2.9 million at the current rate).
Sara Soribes, the fourth favorite among women in Melbourne and current 36th in the rankings, will be Biya Haddad Maiya’s first challenge for the Grand Slam in the 2022 season.
Biya Haddad Maia has already defeated Sara Soribes in two of the three doubles she has made. The first was in straight sets, in the quarterfinals of Seoul (South Korea) in 2017, and two years later Paulista repeated the success in the third set in the quarterfinals of Bogota (Colombia). The only win for the Spaniard was in the first leg of Bol (Croatia), also in straight sets, in 2019.
In case of a win, Biya Haddad Maia would then cross between Belgian Greet Minon and a tennis player from qualifying with the winner. In her quadrant for a possible quarterfinal is American Ann Lee, who makes her debut against Mayor Sheriff of Egypt.
