Curitiba, 26 October 2026: Samson's comeback test, Giovannini's ankle and the first round on clay

The inaugural Curitiba Open opens its main draw today on the clay of the Graciosa Country Club. It is the first round for everyone, so nobody carries a win from this week. The weather has already had a say: rain pushed qualifying onto covered courts. Nothing so far says Monday's matches will move indoors, but the sky over this tournament has made its mood known.

The day has a teenager fresh from a clay final, an Argentine whose ankle is still a question mark, an all-Argentine opener and a 16-year-old Brazilian finishing the programme. Several matches are scheduled as "followed by", and Giovannini–Bronzetti has a not-before time and a possible court change. These are the five I want to talk about:

14:00 — Samson — Tubello
15:30 — Romero Gormaz — Konishi Camargo Silva
17:00 — Bosio — Ortenzi
19:30 — Giovannini — Bronzetti
21:00 — Leme da Silva — Papamichail

Times are UTC.

Laura Samson — Alice Tubello

Laura Samson is 18, Czech, and she arrives from a final, which counts for a lot on clay. Her week in Mallorca was not a procession. Against Tamara Zidansek in the semifinal she won 6-1, lost the second set 1-6, and then found her feet again to take the decider 6-3. That kind of recovery says something about a player's nerve.

The final against Ariana Geerlings was the other side of that. Samson drew level after falling behind, then lost a long service game, and Geerlings ran away with it, 6-2 6-2. To my eye the lesson of Mallorca is that she can recover inside a match, but she has not yet shown she can hold that recovery for long. Her clay record this season, 24 wins against 9 losses, says the surface suits her.

Alice Tubello is 25 and French, and few players on this tour have had to be more patient. In May she spoke to RMC about her Roland-Garros wildcard and called it "a wildcard I never expected, after six operations" (RMC). That surgical history, a hip among it, is background rather than a current injury. Nothing from the coverage I read suggests a fresh problem.

Tubello's clay season has been busy: 40 wins in 57 matches. She also arrives from a deep run, but it ended badly. In the Heraklion semifinal Alisa Oktiabreva kept her under pressure and won 6-2 6-1. Whether that was tactics, execution or the body, nobody has explained.

I see Samson as the more convincing player right now. Her sharpness on clay and her ability to come back seem worth more than Tubello's mileage. The more interesting question is the margin: −3.5 games asks for a clean match, and Samson's recent wins have rarely been clean. I lean towards her winning, probably in two sets, but I would not be surprised by a wobble along the way.

Leyre Romero Gormaz — Julia Konishi Camargo Silva

Leyre Romero Gormaz, a 24-year-old Spanish left-hander, also lost a clay final recently, in Lisbon to Clara Burel, 4-6 3-6. It was not a passive defeat. She started aggressively and built an early lead, then Burel's pressure settled the tight end of the first set and Romero lost her grip on the rallies. On the way there she beat Fiona Ferro and Dalma Galfi for the loss of only nine games combined.

Julia Konishi Camargo Silva is 26, Brazilian and playing on a home wildcard. Her season is a string of close matches: a two-set win in which both sets went to tie-breaks, a 5-7 5-7 loss to Luna Cinalli, a three-set defeat to Valentina Mediorreal Arias after taking the first set. She is not winning comfortably, but she is not getting blown away either.

The real issue for Konishi is time. She was still playing the Campina Grande doubles final on Saturday, and now she plays singles on Monday in another city. How tired she is and how much practice she lost is not known, but the turnaround is about as short as it gets.

I think Romero Gormaz is a clear favourite, and on paper this looks like a mismatch. But a 7.5-game handicap is a lot to ask of a player whose finals have been decided by small swings, against an opponent who keeps scores close. My guess is a straight-sets win for Romero, though Konishi on home clay may push her more than the gap between them suggests. The scoreline is less certain than the result.

Victoria Bosio — Jazmin Ortenzi

An all-Argentine opener, and both players come in after losing matches they had in their hands. Victoria Bosio, 32, won the first set against Francesca Mattioli in Las Vegas and still lost 7-5 4-6 4-6. Jazmin Ortenzi, 24, came back against Polona Hercog in Lisbon to take the second set, then could not hold on in the decider, 3-6 6-3 3-6.

The surface matters here. All of Bosio's last five matches were on hard courts, where she has been ordinary. On clay she is a different player: 37 wins against 17 losses this season. Ortenzi is the higher-ranked of the two and comes straight from European clay, where she has spent most of her year.

Ortenzi had right-arm pain that forced her to retire in Orlando earlier this season. Nothing I read says it has come back, so I treat it as history. The Argentine press has written about her season as a step forward, but that is the journalists' view, not hers.

Ortenzi is the favourite and probably deserves to be. Still, Bosio back on her best surface does not look like the outsider the 1.33 price suggests, and +4 games seems a reasonable margin for her. I expect a long match decided by who handles the momentum swings better, and if I am honest, I would not trust either of them with a big lead.

Luisina Giovannini — Lucia Bronzetti

This is the match of the day for me, and the reason is a medical one. At US Open qualifying, Luisina Giovannini and Lucia Bronzetti did not finish their match: Giovannini retired injured. Argentine reports later pointed to an ankle problem. In September she told Puntal: "I've been carrying an injury for a while" (Puntal). Her current state is unclear, and the fact that she has played since does not prove she is fully healthy.

When the 19-year-old Argentine is moving freely on clay, she is dangerous: 37 wins and 10 losses on the surface this season. The ITF describes her as creative, with easy power off the forehand, drop shots and trips to the net. Her last match, though, shows the doubt clearly. In Stara Zagora she won the first set 6-1 against Lucie Petruzelova, then lost the next two 4-6 4-6. She went from controlling the match to being unable to close it out.

Bronzetti, 27 and Italian, has had her own hard year and has spoken openly about mental struggles earlier in the season. Her recent results on hard courts have not been good: one win in her last five matches. Her coach Francesco Piccari still sees progress: "her forehand has more bite now" (SuperTennis). He also mentions better reading of the game and more drop shots and sliced backhands.

Her matches in Rovereto showed both versions of her. She recovered from a poor start against Mona Barthel and won 3-6 6-1 6-0. Against Jil Teichmann she stayed in the match until late in the second set, then lost the deciding service game. So this is not a simple story of one player in form and one out of it.

I have no confident view here. If Giovannini's ankle allows her to play her full game, the clay favours her, and Bronzetti's price as favourite looks generous. If she starts protecting her movement, Bronzetti's variety will find the weak spot. The bookmakers expect a short match with 22.5 games, but I think it will be long and messy, with breaks going both ways.

Nauhany Vitoria Leme da Silva — Despina Papamichail

The day ends with Nauhany Vitoria Leme da Silva, known as Naná, a 16-year-old Brazilian playing at home. On the eve of the tournament she told TenisBrasil that national-team duty and her taste of the senior tour had been "really worthwhile at this stage of the transition" (TenisBrasil). She does not sound like someone who treats this match as all or nothing.

What I like about Naná is that she is honest about her own game. After losing 2-6 1-6 to Kaitlin Quevedo in São Paulo, she said she had needed to make her opponent play more and test her harder. She also regretted the chances she did not take. Few players her age describe their own mistakes so precisely.

Despina Papamichail, 33 and Greek, is the experienced professional of the pair, with 17 career titles. Her clay season, though, is a losing one, 20 wins against 23 losses. Her last match was a 3-6 4-6 defeat to Alessandra Mazzola in Sardinia late last week, and now she plays in Brazil. A long flight and a short adjustment are worth keeping in mind, even if nobody has said she is struggling.

The price favours Papamichail, but I think it is closer than that. Her clay form is poor and her preparation was rushed, while Naná has a home crowd and a clear plan of her own. I expect a close match and possibly a decider, and +1.5 games for the teenager looks a fair line to me.

An ankle, a long flight and two finalists on the first day

The day's main questions are about fitness rather than form. Does Giovannini's ankle hold up through the long rallies? How much of the trip from Italy is still in Papamichail's legs, and how much of Saturday's doubles final is still in Konishi's? Then there are Samson and Romero Gormaz, both coming off clay finals, and whether they can keep a lead once they have it.

If I had to pick one match to watch from start to finish, it would be Giovannini against Bronzetti, as their New York match was never finished. The AI cappers have the specific picks for each of these matches on the match pages. My notes here are about the stories behind them.