The French Harmony Tan won, this Sunday, 10 October, the inaugural edition of the women's Loulé Open by defeating the Australian Ellen Perez in the grand final of the singles of the international tournament.
Number 119 in the WTA ranking, the 24-year-old French tennis player defeated the Australian (who is the 236th in the world hierarchy and this Sunday celebrates her 26th anniversary) by 6-4 and 6-4.
"I am very happy. I started the week very badly because my first round was very difficult, but I really enjoyed everything in Portugal and Loulé and I want to thank everyone who made this tournament possible. I really enjoy playing here and this week the conditions were very good for me so I'm very happy,” said Tan after signing the victory in 1h32.
With this Sunday's victory, Harmony Tan took her second title of the year (won the $60.000 ITF of Andrezieux-Boutheon, France, in January) and eighth of her career.
The Loulé Open is the second Portuguese tournament to appear in the history of the Gallic tennis player, who in 2017 was crowned champion of a competition in Óbidos and this year finished as runner-up at the ITF of 60.000 dollars + H in Caldas da Rainha.
In the best ranking of her career, the tennis player born in Paris points to the top 100: «it's my goal until the end of the year and I'll play three or four more tournaments to try to achieve it».
Ellen Perez, in turn, played for the second time in 2021 in a final in Portugal (she was also a finalist in Lisbon) and, despite not having managed to win the most important trophy, made a positive assessment of the week in Loulé.
“Reaching the final means I had a good week. I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't win today, but I'm happy with my level of play and that I'm making a lot of games. The club is very nice and the weather has been fantastic, so I only have good things to say», he said.
After the first edition of the women's Loulé Open, the Loulé Tennis Club continued the day with the start of the 11th men's Loulé Open and the first matches of the qualifying phase.
The first Portuguese tennis player to reserve a place in the second of three qualifying rounds was Bernardo Teixeira, who defeated Canadian William Binnie 6-2 6-3.
He was followed by Martim Simões (6-3 and 6-3 over compatriot Tiago Sousa), Miguel Gomes (7-5 and 6-1 against Brazilian Paulo André Saraiva dos Santos), Illia Stoliar (who after conquering the first ATP point of his career in Setúbal, last week, he tries to do the same in Loulé and beat Diego Lopato-Miguel by 6-3 and 6-2) and Afonso Portugal (6-1 and 6-3 to Pedro De la Riva Bueno ).
Jaime Faria, João Ferreira, Eduardo Morais, Martim Marujo, Ivo Isqueiro and Rodrigo Beires failed to replicate the success of their compatriots and were eliminated in the opening round.
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