The Portuguese Gonçalo Falcão and João António qualified, this Monday, February 22nd, for the round of access to the singles main board of the Vale do Lobo Open Magnesium-K Active, international men's tournament of $25.000 organized by Premier Sports with the support of the Portuguese Tennis Federation.
Defending the status of 13th seed, Falcão (number 1335 ATP) took his second victory of the week by beating Frenchman Louis Picaud by a clear 6-4 and 6-1, in a match he led from start to finish.
To qualify for the main frame of what is the first international tournament of 2021 in Portugal, the tennis player from Cascais will have to pass another Frenchman: Ugo Blanchet (911), who won 6-1 and 6-4 against Pablo Carretero, a Spaniard who beat Portuguese Filipe Grebentsov with 6-2 and 6-3 in the early hours of the day.
João António also advanced to the third and final qualifying round, who passed with distinction a double round: in the opening round, delayed from Sunday to Monday due to rain, he beat Jesus Echevarri by 6-1, 3-6 and 10-8.
Then, at the end of the day, the 21-year-old Portuguese once again got the better of a match tie break, this time by 6-1, 5-7 and 10-6 against the Spaniard Jose Joaquin Miranda Cisneros, 1305th ATP and 11th seed. This is followed by former world top 60 Kenny de Schepper (current 653rd), who defeated Tiago Rodrigo Fernandes 6-1 and 6-1.
Just this Monday, Fábio Coelho started the journey well, beating compatriot Francisco Faria by 6-3 and 6-3, but he couldn't keep up the good start and lost to Italian Edoardo Graziani (6-4 and 7). -5 after leading 5-2 in the second set) in the second round, as did Eduardo Morais, who, a day after making his debut in professional tournaments winning, conceded 6-0 and 6-3 to the favourite. Max Andrews, ninth pre-assigned.
In the remaining matches of the day, Diogo Morais lost to the Italian Edoardo Graziani (6-1 and 6-1) in the first round and Illia Stoliar to the Turkish Kuzey Cekirge (6-2 and 6-4).
For the rest, also this Monday the draws for the main staff were held.
In the singles, Nuno Borges (366th ATP) and Gastão Elias (379th) are among the seeds: Borges, who this Monday achieved the best ranking of his career in the ATP ranking, is third and will have to wait for the conclusion of the qualifying (the last round is played on Tuesday) to meet the first opponent; Gastão Elias defends the status of seventh pre-appointed and will match forces with Kristan Tamm, world number 634 who hails from Estonia.
Tiago Cação was the other Portuguese to have direct entry into the main board of Vale do Lobo Open Magnesium-K Active. The tennis player from the Portuguese Tennis Federation's High Performance Center is number 552 ATP and is not part of the seed list, having scheduled a meeting with Frenchman Lucas Poullain (553.º). If he wins, he could have compatriot Nuno Borges as his opponent in the second round.
The three wild cards will face higher ranking opponents: Luís Faria (803.º) will face the second seed, Evan Furness (377.º), Pedro Araújo (1321.º) will face Mexican Lopez Villasenor (557.º) and Tiago Torres (1954th) will challenge Tomas Lipovsek Puches (610th).
In the main doubles table, 11 Portuguese tennis players will play, with emphasis on Gonçalo Falcão (second seed alongside Lipovsek Puches) and Francisco Cabral/Tiago Cação, third favorites.
Comments