Banco Cruzeiro do Sul Rio Champions
March 12-14, 2010
Maracanãzinho Stadium

The 2010 Champions Series kicked off in Rio De Janerio, Brazil where the second annual event was held at the Maracanãzinho Stadium. The three day event was full of surprises with surprise results that ultimately saw Brazilian Fernando Meligeni take out the title.

On Friday, the event kicked off with Meligeni taking out a nail biting victory over Sweden's Mikael Pernfors. Meligeni dropped the first set 6-3 but fought back to take the second, 6-2 forcing the deciding Champions tie-break. The tie-break opened with the longest rally of the match which Meligeni won and used as a springboard to his 10-7 victory. The second match of the evening had Mark Philippoussis starting out his campaign for the title with a dominant display of serving to edge the Frenchman, Cedric Pioline, in straight sets 7-5 6-3. In a shocking upset, the next match saw Wayne Ferreira def. Marat Safin 7-6 6-4. Ferreira stunned Safin in straight sets to spoil the Russian’s rookie campaign on the Champions Series. Ferreira was the more solid of the two throughout using his strong serving and baseline play to prevent Safin from ever getting into the match. Mats Wilander continued on the upset trail with his first win on the Champions Series against Jim Courier. Wilander took advantage of the exceptionally fast surface by frequently sneaking in to net to keep Courier off balance throughout the match taking both sets by the same score of 6-4.

On day two, the matches stacked up for another super session of tennis. Kicking off the semi finals, Fernando Meligeni rode the wave of the highly energetic and partisan home crowd to edge a surging Wayne Ferreira in a nail bighter, winning 7-5 2-6 10-2 (TB). Meligeni used incredibly athletic defense to outlast Ferreira in the longest match of the tournament thus far. In the night's second semifinal, Mark Philippoussis focused his efforts on a powerful serve and volley game to overwhelm Mats Wilander in straight sets 6-3 6-3. Mark kept Mats on the defensive the entire match and Wilander had no response for the Philippoussis serve.

Amongst the exciting matches, legendary Brazilian player Gustavo Kuerten hosted the Banco Cruzerio do Sul Rio Champions Kids Day. Over 200 kids joined the champions to participate in on court clinics and autograph sessions with fun had by both the players and young fans alike. 'It was a lot of fun for the kids but I think I am the one who had more fun on the court today' said Kuerten.

Sunday saw the conclusion of the event which saw Ferreira and Wilander go head to hand to battle it out for third place. The student edged the teacher in a battle between the former coach/player tandem. After a slow start, Ferreira battled back to wear Wilander down with powerful serves and aggressive baseline play. After evening the match at a set a piece, Ferreira took control of the tie-break with an early break and then held service throughout to clinch the victory winning 2-6 6-2 10-7 (TB). Our attention was then focused on the championship final which was a found both Meligeni and Philippoussis advance further than they had previously on the tour. After splitting the first two sets, Meligeni jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the Champions tie-break only to see Philippoussis claw his way back to 9-8. In an epic match match point, Meligeni finally put the match away with a running forehand pass to seal the victory, his first on the Champions Series winning 6-2 4-6 10-8 (TB).

InsideOut would like to thank all of the fans who supported the Banco Cruzerio do Sul Rio Champions Cup in 2010 and we look forward to seeing you back in Brazil next year!

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