Portuguese tennis players Gastão Elias and Pedro Araújo started to win, this Wednesday, February 24th, at the start of the singles main table at Vale do Lobo Open Magnesium-K Active.
Holding the second tournament of the season, Gastão Elias, who this week climbed to 379th in the ATP rankings, took his sixth victory in as many matches as he defeated Kristjan Tamm (642nd), from Estonia, 6-4 and 6 -4.
Faced with an opponent backed by a powerful service hit, the 30-year-old Portuguese player (who reached the top 60 in the ATP ranking) was qualified in the answer chapter and despite the difficulties he faced, he managed to break four times the booty of Tamm.
Seventh seed, Gastão Elias will face Austria's Maximilian Neuchrist (653rd ATP) in the second round, to which compatriot Pedro Araújo also advanced (1325th place).
Chosen by the organization to receive one of the four wild cards available, Tennis School player Jaime Caldeira reacted in the best way possible to the occasion and defeated Mexican Gerardo Lopez Villasenor (558th in the ranking) 6-4 and 6-1, achieving one of the best victories of his career.
«I'm happy with my game. I was able to adapt well to difficult conditions, wind and everything else. It wasn't easy, but I'm happy with my game. I got into the meeting very well. I was playing aggressive tennis and he didn't start very well, but also to my credit. Then I started to miss more and he got better, so the end of the set was complicated. But in the last two games, from 4-4 onwards, I did very well and winning there was the key to the match», analyzed the 18-year-old Portuguese youth after the victory that allowed him to set up a meeting with Vincent Stouff (34 years old and 1086 .º ATP).
Four other Portuguese tennis players were scheduled to take action this Wednesday, but only three went to the game: Nuno Borges, who would be the third seed, abdicated from participating in the tournament due to an injury to his right shoulder.
“I've been having problems serving for two weeks. It's getting better little by little, but I need some more time to be at 100%. As much as I thought I could win today by not serving my best, it made no sense to compromise the shoulder and eventually make a situation worse and not compete for a month or more," explained the 24-year-old, who hopes to recover in time for the tournament. scheduled for next week in Faro.
In the remaining matches, Tiago Cação (6-2 and 6-2 for Lucas Poullain), Luís Faria (6-1 and 6-2 favorable to Evan Furness) and Tiago Torres (6-1 and 6-0 signed by Tomas Lipovsek Puches ) failed to move forward.
With a strong presence in Vale do Lobo, France is increasingly the country and the most prominent in the Vale do Lobo Open Magnesium-K Active and, in addition to Stouff, Poullain and Furness, also Maxime Hamou (first seed), Antoine Escoffier (second), Tak Khunn Wang and Ronan Joncour passed the first round.
The tournament is organized by Premier Sports with the support of the Portuguese Tennis Federation and ends on Sunday, February 28th. At stake is $25.000 in prize money. Due to the pandemic, and in accordance with the guidelines of the General Directorate of Health, the presence of the public is not allowed.
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