The Portuguese Jaime Faria and Fábio Coelho guaranteed, this Monday, February 20, their presence in the qualifying round for the main table of singles of the 32nd. Faro Open, an international tournament worth 25 thousand dollars that takes place until February 26th.
Third seed in the qualifying round, Jaime Faria (595th in the men's world rankings) needed to work hard to move on.
The 19-year-old had, moreover, to cancel a match point en route to a 6-4, 3-6, 12-10 victory over Britain's Sean Hodkin (1208th) at match tie break, in which he was even the first player to have points to solve the arm wrestling match (he led by 9-6) before the opponent's reaction.
This Monday's victory was the Lisbon's second in the tournament and allowed him to meet Senegalese Seydina Andre (904th) in the round of access to the main frame, the same for which Fábio Coelho also followed.
The youngster from Oliveira de Azeméis, currently in 1014th position on the world table, had a quieter day, as he passed the Czech Jan Jermar (without international classification) with the partials of 6-2 and 6-1 in just 61 minutes .
Hynek Barton, 18 years old and number 726 in the world, will be the next opponent of the current absolute national champion.
In the opposite direction to Jaime Faria and Fábio Coelho, Salvador Monteiro and Afonso Portugal were eliminated during the afternoon: a day after having debuted in professional tournaments with a victory, Monteiro, 15 years old, conceded by 6-2 and 6-0 for the eighth seed, Sergi Perez Contri (ranked 717th); Portugal, eight years older than its compatriot, lost by 6-3 and 6-1 to the first pre-designate, the French Maxime Chazal (505th).
This Monday's day also made known the results of the draws for the main singles and doubles tables, which include several Portuguese tennis players.
The individual grid has, for now, six players from home and at least one of them will reach the second round, given that the draw dictated a 100% Portuguese match between Pedro Sousa (formerly 99th and current 462nd) and Tiago Pereira (1430th).
Of the rest, Gonçalo Oliveira (473rd), Duarte Vale (559th) and Pedro Araújo (644th) were all drawn against opponents who make up the seeded batch — Giovanni Fonio (329th), Billy Harris (366th) and Michael Vrbensky (376th), respectively.
Henrique Rocha (858th), who entered as special exempt after winning the first ITF title of his career in Vila Real de Santo António, will start the Faro Open against the Israeli Yshai Oliel (469th).
In pairs, 10 of the registered players (among the 16 pairs) are Portuguese: Gonçalo Oliveira is in charge of the status of first seed with the Australian Jason Taylor, Jaime Faria / Duarte Vale are third and Fábio Coelho / Gonçalo Falcão are the third quarters, with Henrique Rocha/Tiago Pereira and Rodrigo Fernandes/Manuel Guedes de Almeida forming the remaining national duos, while Pedro Araújo lines up alongside Sean Hodkin.
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