Pedro Sousa signed the first Portuguese victory in the main singles table of the 32nd edition of the Faro Open on this Tuesday, February 21st, which was also marked by the successful passage of Jaime Faria through qualifying.
Returning to a tournament in which he discussed the 2012 and 2013 finals (he won the first, lost the second), Pedro Sousa (currently in the 462nd position in the world rankings) overcame compatriot Tiago Pereira (1430th) by 6-3. 7 and 5-XNUMX in a duel of generations.
After two defeats in Vila Real de Santo António, this was the first victory for the former world number 99 in returning to the ITF circuit for the first time in six years.
And it wasn't easy to move on: in the second match, the 34-year-old from Lisbon quickly found himself at a disadvantage by two breaks, but penalized the little experience of the young opponent (18 years old), who accused the importance of the moment on the two occasions in which it served to force a third set, and ended up winning five consecutive games to rescue the meeting and celebrate the victory in 1h24.
Pedro Sousa's next opponent will come out of the duel between the French Antoine Hoang (355th and former 98th) and Lucas Poullain (849th), who plays the tournament with protected ranking after being 426th in May 2021, the year he was a finalist in this same tournament.
On the other hand, Gonçalo Oliveira (473rd) was not happy and was eliminated in the opening match. The 28-year-old from Porto — currently living in the Algarve — was the first Portuguese to play in the main draw, losing by 7-6(5) and 6-4 to the Italian Giovanni Fonio (332nd), who after much fighting confirmed the status of third seed.
The match was intense from start to finish, with both players playing tennis at a very high level for the 2h02 that lasted for an arm wrestling match that could even have had different contours, given that Oliveira led by 5- 0 in tie-breaker of the first match, but ended up losing seven consecutive points.
Wednesday will be the debut day in the main frame for the remaining players that make up the Portuguese entourage still present in the tournament: Duarte Vale (559th), Pedro Araújo (644th), Henrique Rocha (854th) and Jaime Faria (595th), the latter after having survived the three rounds of the qualifying round.
Just like the day before, the 19-year-old from Lisbon was once again forced into a match tie-breaker to extend their participation in the tournament, but this time they didn't have to cancel a meeting point and overcame the Senegalese Seydina Andree (904th) to win by 4-6, 6-4 and 11-9.
Fábio Coelho (1014th) was also in the game in the round to access the main board, but lost by 6-3 and 7-5 with the Czech Hynek Barton (732nd in the ranking and seventh seed) after 1h38 and not managed to follow in his friend's footsteps.
The journey ended with the holding of the first matches of the pairs table, which did not result in any Portuguese victory: Gonçalo Oliveira and the Australian Jason Taylor (first seed) lost by 3-6, 7-5 and 10-5 with Antoine Hoang/Gregoire Jacq; Henrique Rocha/Tiago Pereira conceded by 6-4 and 6-3 to Lucas Poullain/Clement Tabur; Rodrigo Fernandes/Manuel Almeida by 6-4 and 6-4 by John Echeverria/Diego Fernandez Flores; and Pedro Araújo, alongside the British Sean Hodkin, lost 6-3, 6-7(6) and 10-4 to Giovanni Fonio and Juan Bautista Otegui.
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