Duarte Vale and Henrique Rocha advanced, this Wednesday, February 22nd, to the second wave of the main singles table of the 32nd edition of the Faro Open.
Winner of an ITF worth US$25 in Vila Real de Santo António on Sunday (first title of his career as a professional), Henrique Rocha (854th in the ATP ranking) celebrated his eighth consecutive victory by overcoming the Israeli Yshai Oliel (470. º) by the partials of 7-5, 3-6 and 6-1.
This Wednesday's meeting was resolved in 2h53 and the 18-year-old's recovery in the first match was essential for the outcome: losing by 2-5, Rocha won five consecutive games and gained an advantage on the scoreboard. Afterwards, Oliel managed to respond and forced a decisive partial, but Rocha “took off” for the victory with a break right in the first games.
Winning for eight straight matches, Henrique Rocha will face in the second round of the Faro Open a compatriot: Duarte Vale (559th), who shortly after signed the second Portuguese victory of the day.
Invited by the organization to the main frame, the 24-year-old, former world junior number 14, overcame sixth seed Billy Harris (367th and sixth seed) in two games, by 6-2 and 7 -6(5), after 2h25.
Vale came to lead by a break in the second game and seemed on track (6-2 and 3-1 with a point to 4-1) for a comfortable victory. But the British, four years older, didn't throw in the towel and not only managed to recover, but even had two set points before the Portuguese forced the “trembling” in which he ended up stamping the victory.
In addition to Rocha and Vale, the Faro Open will also have in the second round the main frame of singles Pedro Sousa, who advanced the day before.
In the opposite direction followed Jaime Faria (595th) and Pedro Araújo (644th), but with different contours: the first was unable to reply and lost a duel of qualifiers with John Echeverria (742nd) by 6-0 and 6-3; the second, offered a lot of resistance to the seventh pre-designated Michael Vrbensky (364th) before losing in two tie breaks, by 7-6(7) and 7-6(4), after 2:35 am.
In the doubles variant, Fábio Coelho and Gonçalo Falcão (who celebrated his 35th birthday this Wednesday) recovered from a one-set disadvantage and overcame the British Billy Harris and the Israeli Yshai Oliel — curiously the two players who fell to Portuguese in singles — by 2-6, 6-4 and 10-8 after 1h17.
In this way, the fourth seed scheduled a meeting in the quarterfinals with the Czechs Matej Vocel and Michael Vrbensky.
Jaime Faria and Duarte Vale, however, failed to confirm their third seed status and lost by 6-3 and 6-4 to the Danes August Holmgren and Christian Sigsgaard.
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