Rome Italy) – This Tuesday the doubles bracket for the Masters 1000 in Rome was drawn, which will feature three Brazilians, Marcelo Melo from Minas Gerais, Rafael Matos from Rio Grande do Sul and Thiago Wild from Paraná. Melo and Matos will have foreign partners at Foro Itálico, but they will team up in the following tournament and will continue together at least until the Paris Olympic Games.
The country’s leading name in doubles, Melo will renew his partnership with German Alexander Zverev, who was runner-up in the Monte Carlo Masters 1000. They had a very tough debut, challenging the number 4 seeds, the North American Austin Krajicek and the British Neal Skupski.
Playing alongside Argentine Andres Molteni, Matos will have an accessible debut against Frenchman Adrian Mannarino and Spaniard Pedro Martinez, but in the second round they have everything to face the number 1 pair in the world, formed by Spaniard Marcel Granollers and Argentine Horacio Zeballos, who open a campaign against the Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and the Frenchman Arthur Fils.
Melo and Matos are on the same side of the bracket, but can only meet in a possible semifinal. In the gaucho quadrant, in addition to the main favorites there are also the Monegasque Hugo Nys and the Polish Jan Zielinski. As for the Minas Gerais team, another tough partnership on the way is that of the Germans Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz.
Wild and Baez enter after withdrawal
Brazil’s number 1 in singles, Thiago Wild will play alongside Argentine Sebastian Baez, who is one of his usual training partners. They face Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor and Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz. If they win in their debut, they could face the Dutchman Wesley Koolhof and the Croatian Nikola Mektic, seeded 7th, who face the Dutchman Robin Haase and the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Wild and Baez’s place in the group came after the withdrawal of the Russian duo of Daniil Medvedev and Roman Safiullin, announced this Wednesday.
