Japanese Kaichi Uchida was the winner of the Loulé Open

Kaichi Uchida (369th in the ATP ranking) was the winner of the Loulé Open, which ended this Sunday. The 27-year-old Japanese tennis player defeated the German Lucas Gerch (485th ATP) 6-4 and 6-4 to win the 11th edition of the international tournament organized by the Clube de Ténis de Loulé, the first with a prize-money of 25 thousand dollars.

Similar to what happened in the previous days, also this Sunday the Japanese tennis player raised the level of play and this allowed him to win the final in just 1h24, in a match in which he saved the two break points he faced and converted two of the five in who was willing to win the title without any major difficulties.

In common, Uchida and Gerch had the fact that they started the Loulé Open with difficult first matches: the Japanese needed three sets to defeat the Portuguese Gonçalo Falcão (in the second round he beat another Portuguese, Luís Faria, and in the semi-finals one another, Pedro Araújo), while the German had to “turn around” the Frenchman Corentin Denolly to also win in three matches.

“I am very happy to have won this tournament. I had already won a tournament in Portugal in March, but after Vale do Lobo I went through a difficult period because I didn't win many matches, so winning here in Loulé makes me very happy», said Uchida, who in March defeated another German tennis player — Sebastian Fanselow — to win the $25 ITF organized by Vale do Lobo Tennis Academy.

Lucas Gerch, in turn, lamented the difficulties felt in the final against "a very aggressive player who already knew he was going to force me to play more defensive tennis".

Even so, the tennis player made a positive assessment of the week at the Clube de Ténis de Loulé: «it turned out to be a very good week because in the first round I felt a lot of difficulties, but then I played very good matches in the second round, in the quarter-finals and even in the semi-finals. I had a very good week in Loulé, the conditions in Portugal are always great because it's hot and sunny and everyone made me feel at home».