Hot Sousa to make his class tell

ATP rankings do not always give an accurate reflection of a tennis player’s ability but there is a sizeable gap on the ladder between world number 36 Joao Sousa and Yen-Hsun Lu (72) which could be reflected by the outcome of today’s match in the first round of the Winston-Salem Open.

Despite the disparity, Lu is the 8-11 favourite and Sousa 6-5.

Sousa’s best results have been on clay but he has won 53 of his 115 matches on hard surfaces (46 per cent), which compares favourably to Lu’s hard court statistics – 111 from 261 (43 per cent). Sousa took a set off Juan Martin del Potro at the Olympics and is playing well enough to beat Lu, who bids to end a three-match losing sequence.