João Olavo Soares de Souza (; born 27 May 1988) is a Brazilian former professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player. Before receiving a lifetime ban for match-fixing, Souza competed mainly on the

ATP Challenger Tour The ATP Challenger Tour, known until the end of 2008 as the ATP Challenger Series, is a series of international men's professional tennis tournaments. The Challenger Tour events are the second-highest tier of tennis competition, behind the ATP T ...

, both in singles and doubles. He reached his highest ATP singles ranking, No. 69, on April 6, 2015, and his highest ATP doubles ranking, No. 70, on January 7, 2013. Souza was coached by former Brazilian player

Ricardo Acioly Ricardo Augusto Amaral Acioly (born 4 February 1964) is a former tennis player from Brazil. He has what is considered by many one of the most complete and successful careers in Brazilian tennis having been recognized Internationally as a player, ...

. Souza is also known as "Feijão" (Portuguese for Bean).

Career

In 2011, he qualified to the US Open, but was defeated in the first round by wildcard

Robby Ginepri Robert Louis Ginepri ( ; born October 7, 1982) is a retired American professional tennis player. He won three ATP singles titles in his career and achieved a career-high ranking of World No. 15 in December 2005. Ginepri's best Grand Slam result ...

3–6, 4–6, 7–6, 1–6. In the 2014 season, Souza beat world No. 45,

Robin Haase Robin Haase (; born 6 April 1987) is a Dutch professional tennis player. He reached his career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 33 in July 2012, and has won two singles titles, at the Austrian Open in both 2011 and 2012. Haase also reac ...

in round of 32 of the ATP 250 São Paulo. Later he reached semifinals at the Marburg, Scheveningen and Poznan Challengers. At the Medellin Challenger, he beat

Facundo Bagnis Facundo Bagnis (; born 27 February 1990) is an Argentine professional tennis player. He has won 1 ATP doubles event at Stuttgart and 16 Challengers in singles, achieving a career-high singles ranking of World No. 55 in November 2016. Tennis care ...

in semifinals and lost to

Austin Krajicek Austin Krajicek (born June 16, 1990) is an American professional tennis player. He has a career-high ATP ranking in doubles of World No. 9 achieved on 7 November 2022 and in singles of World No. 94 achieved on October 26, 2015. He is a distant co ...

in the final. He reached semifinals at the Quito Challenger. In 2015, he played in the longest singles match in

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...

history, losing to

Leonardo Mayer Leonardo Martín Mayer (; ''Mayer'' locally or , ; born May 15, 1987) is a former professional tennis player from Argentina. Mayer achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 21 in June 2015 and world No. 48 in doubles in January 2019. ...

in 6 hours and 42 minutes, 6–7⁽⁴⁾, 6–7⁽⁵⁾, 7–5, 7–5, 13–15. In 2016, he won the

2016 International Tennis Tournament of Cortina The 2016 International Tennis Tournament of Cortina was a professional tennis tournament played on clay courts. It was the 3rd edition of the tournament which was part of the 2016 ATP Challenger Tour. It took place in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy b ...

on the

, beating

Laslo Đere Laslo Đere ( sr-Cyrl, Ласло Ђере; ; born 2 June 1995) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He is a member of the Hungarian community in Serbia. He has won two ATP Tour singles titles, one an ATP 500 Series event in Rio in 2019, af ...

in the final in straight sets. In January 2020, the

Tennis Integrity Unit The Tennis Integrity Unit was the organisation responsible for investigating match fixing in tennis since 2008 until 2020. It was replaced by the International Tennis Integrity Agency. It had the ability to impose fines and sanctions, and ban pl ...

announced that Souza had been issued a lifetime ban after conviction on match-fixing charges.LIFETIME BAN AND $200,000 FINE FOR JOAO OLAVO SOARES DE SOUZA AFTER CONVICTION ON MATCH-FIXING CHARGES
TIU 25 Jan. 2020

Career

ATP career finals

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Futures & Challenger finals

Singles: 22 (14–8)

Doubles: 22 (11–11)

Singles performance timeline

References

External links

See also