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

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

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. It was founded in 1976 as a replacement for the ILTF Satellite Circuit (founded in 1971) as ...

, 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. 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 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 Association of Tennis Professionals, ATP singles ranking of world No. 33 in July 2012 and his highest doubles ranking of world No. 29 in May 2023 ...

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 in semifinals and lost to

Austin Krajicek Austin Krajicek ( ; born June 16, 1990) is an American professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 1 in doubles by the ATP in June 2023. He attained a career-high singles ranking of world No. 94 in October 2015. A form ...

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 organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...

history, losing to Leonardo Mayer 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 on the

, beating Laslo Djere in the final in straight sets. In January 2020, the Tennis Integrity Unit 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