This Wednesday, 13 October, tennis players Francisco Cabral and Pedro Araújo secured a place in the second round of the Loulé Open singles main frame.
Gonçalo Falcão came close to the best victory of his career, but he couldn't consummate it and Miguel Gomes also left a good image against one of the favorites. In pairs, of the five Portuguese tennis players qualified for the quarter-finals, at least one will necessarily go ahead.
The first Portuguese victory of this Wednesday's journey was signed by Francisco Cabral (911 in the ATP ranking), who, almost a month after having competed for the last time in singles, returned to the variant with a victory by 7-5 and 6-4 at 1:45 am on the Luxembourger Raphael Calzi (1836.º), who entered the main painting as lucky loser.
After three consecutive finals on the ATP Challenger Tour alongside Nuno Borges (champions in Braga and runners-up in Lisbon and Barcelona), the 24-year-old from Porto accused some lack of shooting in the variant in recent times, but has adapted to time to stamp a victory in two matches to set up a meeting with Rinky Hijikata (468th), Australian who last Sunday played in the final of a tournament of this category in Setúbal.
The other victory of the day for the Portuguese colors in singles was stamped at sunset, with Pedro Araújo (798th ATP) confirming the good moment of form and defeating German Sebastian Fanselow (419th) by 6-4 , 1-6 and 6-0 in the last meeting of the journey.
With the fifth victory of his career over a top 500 opponent, the 19-year-old Lisbon player made an appointment with Laurent Lokoli. Currently 522nd in the ATP ranking, the Frenchman was ranked 207th in April 2015 and this Wednesday he had to work to overcome the young Miguel Gomes (who passed the qualifying) in two matches, by balanced 6-4 and 7-5.
Not far from securing a place in the second round was Gonçalo Falcão, who after adding two victories in qualifying managed to force Japan's Kaichi Uchida (369th) to three matches, before losing 4-6, 6- 3 and 6-3, in a match that could have earned him his first ever victory against a top 400 tennis player in the world in matches on the international circuit.
Despite the defeat in the singles, Gonçalo Falcão didn't end the day without celebrating, as in the doubles variant, alongside Slovenia's Tomas Lipovsek Puches, he confirmed his fourth seeded status by applying the 6-2 and 6-1 partials. the Spaniards Adria Soriano Barrera and Adria Vallejo Ferrer to reach the quarter-finals.
In the next phase, the 33-year-old Portuguese will meet fellow countrymen Jaime Faria and Luís Faria, who overturned Mexican Alan Fernando Rubio Fierros and German Noah Thurner to win 1-6, 6-1 and 10-4.
Francisco Cabral also went forward, who replicated his success in the singles and with Corentin Denolly overcame Turkey's Tuna Altuna and Croatian Zvonimir Babic by 7-5 and 6-3. First seeded, the Portuguese and the French will face Raphael Calzi and Amaury Raynel in the quarter-finals.
Comments