Henrique Rocha qualified, this Thursday, February 23, for the quarterfinals of the singles Faro Open and became the only Portuguese in the competition.
Full of confidence after winning the first title of his career in professional tournaments on Sunday, in Vila Real de Santo António, Henrique Rocha (854th in the ATP ranking) celebrated his ninth consecutive victory by overcoming compatriot Duarte Vale (854th). ) by 7-5 and 6-2 in 1h47.
As on the previous day, the 18-year-old again won five consecutive games to escape between the sword and the wall (2-5) in the first set.
And, contrary to what happened the day before, when he had to play three matches, this Thursday's recovery was decisive in the match, given that Rocha gained the momentum he was looking for to "design" a much more relaxed second half, in which he stopped the opponent's aggressiveness and was always the player with the most initiative from the bottom line.
In the quarterfinals, Henrique Rocha will face the North American Martin Damm, 446th in the world ranking and responsible for the elimination of the Ivorian Eliakim Coulibaly (511th) by 7-6(2) and 7-5 .
This Thursday's events made the player from the Portuguese Tennis Federation's High Performance Center the only Portuguese representative still in the competition this season. Faro Open.
Pedro Sousa (462nd), who on Tuesday became the first Portuguese to advance, fought for 3h04, but ended up giving in to the Frenchman Lucas Poullain (849th), 7-6(4), 6- 7(4) and 6-3, in a match that even ended with more points won (124) compared to the opponent (120).
Neither Sousa (champion of the Faro Open in 2012 and finalist in 2013) nor Poullain (runner-up in 2021) have one of their main weapons in the service stroke, which is why the match was characterized by several service breaks and, above all, many opportunities on both sides.
The 34-year-old from Lisbon and former number 99 in the world was, in fact, the tennis player who missed the most chances — he only converted six of the 23 break points he created, while Poullain scored seven of 14, two of them in the final partial and already after having been at a disadvantage.
In the pairs variant, Fábio Coelho and Gonçalo Falcão had been the only Portuguese tennis players to advance to the quarterfinals, but they were unable to follow up on the result of the day before. Fourth seed, the 22- and 35-year-olds, respectively, lost 6-2 and 6-4 to Czechs Matej Vocel and Michael Vrbensky.
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