Barker wins all-English
final in Sao Paulo ...

England's Peter Barker beat compatriot Joey Barrington 11/9, 11/5, 11/6 in the final of the $10k Sao Paulo International, a tournament much enjoyed by the English players and Brazilian fans alike ...

Silvia Mathieson caught up with the players ...

Joey Barrington It’s his first time in São Paulo but he would like to visit Rio de Janiero. For this Capricorn guy São Paulo is a busy city, with good food and very friendly people. He considered the level the tournament strong. He was elected by the Brazilian girls the most charming player of the tournament. He considered the organization very good, even though Julio Caseiro – the organizer – was always nervous and anxious.

Sam Miller It is his second time in Brazil. His first time was in Campinas city. São Paulo is a very good city, with good food and the people very easy to make contact with. For this Cancer guy, the technical level was very strong and the 32 main draw made the tournament more competitive and difficult.

Peter Barker It is his second time in Brazil. His first visit was in Goiânia – Brazil Open 2003. For him the Paulistano club was very nice and his was having fun in São Paulo. The brazilian girls got very sad when he said about his girlfriend. His star sign is Libra.

Sao Paulo Site

31-Jul: Hi Fram, "Just played Joey, managed to win in three close games. I think he was a little jaded from a tough week but he was a good competitor and I was delighted to win. The tournament has been a success, everyone here has had a smile on their face and hope to come back again next year. There were three refs, which was a bit different but all of who did a great job. Julio presented a great tournament and hope the crowd enjoyed themselves. Peter Barker    More news from the players: Peter, Joey, Tom and Sam ...

Round One:
  Peter Barker bt Darren Lewis  11/5, 11/7, 11/8 (46m)
  Sabir Butt bt Edilson Nunes  11/5, 11/3, 10/11, 11/5 (47m)
  Amr Ramzy bt Andre Haschker  6/11, 11/6, 11/6, 11/2 (51m)
  El Iraky Aziz  bt Jose Pedro Escobar  5/11, 11/0, 11/8, 11/9 (49m)
  Jan Koukal bt Roberto Pezzota  11/6, 11/6, 7/11, 11/8
  Tom Richards bt Lefika Ragontse  w/o
  Andreas Fuchs bt Eduardo Ruske  11/2, 11/7, 11/8 (35m)
  Luciano Barbosa bt S. Christovam  11/5, 11/4, 11/8
  Omar Mosaad bt Andre Holderegger  11/10, 11/6, 5/11, 11/6 (62m)
   Jose Becerril bt Yann Perrin  11/4, 11/5, 11/7 (31m)
   Duncan Walsh bt Julio Caseiro  11/8, 11/7, 10/11, 11/5 (57m)
   Sam Miller bt Glauciuo Novack  11/8, 11/3, 11/7 (36m)
   Miguel Rodrigues bt Fabien Verseille  11/6, 11/5, 11/6 (34m)
   Amr Mansi bt Ronivaldo Santos  9/11, 11/4, 11/4, 11/7 (56m)
   Ahmed Hassaan bt Antonio Christovam Jr  11/6, 11/2, 11/4 (27m)
   Joey Barrington bt Mathieu Castagnet  11/4, 11/2, 11/7 (44m)


Qualifying

   Finals:
   Mathieu Castagnet (Fra) bt Arnaldo Vasconcellos  11/3, 11/5, 11/5
   Edilson Nunes bt Guilherme Melo              11/9, 11/7, 11/10
   Jose Pedro Escobar bt Uduardo Ruske       11/8, 11/7, 11/6
   Ronivaldo Santos bt Luis André Couto       11/8, 11/3, 11/2
   Roberto Pezzota v Bruno Bolzan               10/11, 11/4, 11/9, 11/7
   Glaucio Novack v Manoel Pereira              5/11, 11/7, 11/4, 3/11, 11/5
   Julio Caseiro v Hélio Souza                      11/9, 11/3, 11/6
   Yan Perrin (Fra) v Vinicius Costa              11/1, 11/8, 11/3

   First Round:
   Arnaldo Vasconcelos bt Gabriel Melo    11/8, 11/6, 10/11, 11/9 (46m)
   Luiz André Couto bt Conrad Ramos      8/11, 12/14, 11/9, 11/9, 11/5
   Bruno Bolzan bt Renato Patricio           10/11, 11/4, 11/9, 11/7 (68m)
   Hélio Souza bt Silvano Rodrigues         11/9, 11/1, 11/3 (29m)
 
 

29-Jul:
Sam Miller reports
from Sao Paulo ...

Hi Fram,

Joey and I thought we'd let you know what's been going on in SP.

Pete Barker won a fairly comfortable 3-0 against Sabir Butt. Sab was struggling with the court a little, as we all were. It's very different to most glass courts and is proving tough to get used to. A couple of days and we should be ok.

Joey won 3-0. Didn't go on until 11pm so was glad to get off in 3.

I won 3-1 vs Duncan Walsh. Again, struggling with the court in the first game but was comfortable in the end. Nice to stretch the legs for a bit.

Jan Koukal had a nightmare against Tom Richards. He lost 3-2 and although I didn't see it it was still a huge upset. Tom must have played well as Kouki has been playing well in practice and seemed likely to give Pete a run for his money in the semis. Turns out Kouki was feeling off colour today and even threw up. No disrespect to Tom but Kouki is a good player and something didn't add up. He came from two down to lose in five ... great win for Tom.

Ummmm .... Luciano the Brazilian Wildcard plays again tomorrow ... good win for him ... he's a local favourite. Amr Mansi (very nice guy) played an excellent game to close out the Colombian player in three. Tough first but
pushed through nicely in the final two. I will play another Eygptian tomorrow as he beat Bercerril of Mexico in a close five setter. Long match with the fifth going the way of the Mexican. Jose had a bad start in that final game and couldn't recover.

SP is ok .... great food and the people are excellent hosts. I stayed in Rafael's apartment for 4/5 nights along with Joey B and Kouki before moving to the hotel yesterday. Raffa is in the US so it was very kind of him to let us use his pad.

Sabir has been magnificent. He's not only taxied us around for 5 days but also fed and as things would have it clothed us too (Kouki and I are wearing Companian (his company) for the 3 South American tournaments).

His wife has had to do without Sabir for more time than she might like; esp as they have a gorgeous young 4 month old baby girl.

Managed to sample an ATP tournament in the mountains which was a nice break from the city. All in all ... fairly quiet first week - I'm sure it won't stay that way.

Will let you know more results as they happen.

Sam Miller