This Thursday, October 14th, tennis player Pedro Araújo qualified for the singles quarter-finals of the Loulé Open, equaling the best result of his career in this $25.000 international tournament. Later, the 19-year-old Lisboner also advanced in the pairs and ensured his presence in the semi-finals, as did compatriots Francisco Cabral and Gonçalo Falcão — all with different partners.
If on Wednesday he left the German Sebastian Fanselow in his way (419th ATP), this Thursday Pedro Araújo — who occupies the 798th position in the male world hierarchy — gave a comeback to Frenchman Laurent Lokoli (currently 522nd place). and ex-207) to win by the splits of 2-6, 7-5 and 6-1, in a match in which he needed to save a match point in the second game.
The victory, signed at 2:25 am, qualified the Lisbon tennis player for the quarter-finals of the singles of an international tournament for the third time in his career and, curiously, always in the municipality of Loulé (Vale do Lobo 2020 and 2021 and Loulé 2021).
To go one step further and be present in the first semi-finals, Pedro Araújo will have to go through an opponent who this Thursday went through a similar situation: Arthur Cazaux, finalist at the junior Australian Open in 2020 and current number 342 in the world.
The Frenchman was losing 6-0 and 5-2 and faced a match point in the tie-break, but managed to beat Moroccan Elliot Benchetrit and triumph by 0-6, 7-6(7) and 6-0 to achieve his ninth consecutive victory in Portugal (coming from the title in Setúbal).
Left behind were Luís Faria and Francisco Cabral. The young man from Guimarães (777.º ATP) lost 6-3 and 6-4 to the Japanese Kaichi Uchida (369.º and third seed), who raised the level compared to the previous day, while the Porto native withdrew due to problems at the right elbow when trailing 6-1 and 1-0 to Rickey Hijikata, an Australian who occupies 468th place in the rankings and played the final in Setúbal on Sunday.
Despite the pain, Francisco Cabral managed to return to the court and win alongside Corentin Denolly. The Portuguese and the French – the first seeded ones – lost the first set to Raphael Calzi and Amaury Raynel, but turned the score around and stamped the victory by 1-6, 6-2 and 10-6.
With this result, Cabral put himself one step closer to reaching a fifth consecutive final in the variant (he was Sintra's $25.000 ITF champion with Sebastian Fanselow, Braga Challenger champion with Nuno Borges and runner-up in the Lisbon Challengers and Barcelona also with the Mayato). For that, he will have to overcome a compatriot, as Gonçalo Falcão and Slovenia's Tomas Lipovsek Puches confirmed the status of pre-designated quarters and defeated Luís Faria and Jaime Faria 6-0 and 6-4.
In the lower half of the painting, Portuguese representation continues to be provided by Pedro Araújo.
After starting the day by winning in singles, the 18 under-2020 national champion ended up feeling the same feeling when he was successful again, this time alongside Kaichi Uchida, and thanks to the 6-1 and 7-5 splits. on the Spaniards Alberto Barroso Campos and Roberto Ortega-Olmedo, second favourites. Araújo and Uchida will fight for a place in the final with Hijikata and Mick Veldheer.
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