Tennis: Portuguese Gonçalo Oliveira is already in the semi-finals of the Loulé Open

This Friday's victory was signed in 1h43

The Portuguese Gonçalo Oliveira won again and stamped, on the afternoon of this Friday, March 3, the passage to the semi-finals of the main table of singles of the Loulé Open.

The only Portuguese representative still in the competition in the individual variant, Gonçalo Oliveira (currently ranked 464th in the ATP ranking) surprised the tournament's headliner, the Belgian Michael Geerts (238th), by 6-3 and 6-4.

This Friday's victory was signed in 1h43 and, like the previous two, was achieved in two matches. Oliveira found it difficult to deal with Geerts' ball weight in the first few games, but he naturally faced the need to be more patient and from the seventh game he began to dominate most of the ball exchanges.

The first break the match came to 4-3 and from then on, the 28-year-old from Porto always stayed ahead, even opening the second game with a 3-0 lead. But at that moment Geerts asked for the intervention of the physiotherapist of the tournament, to be assisted in the left leg, and broke some rhythm to Oliveira, who lost one of the two breaks of service of advantage and had to remain calm so as not to let slip the lead.

In the semi-finals, Gonçalo Oliveira will face Jesper de Jong, from the Netherlands. The world number 295 confirmed his status as the third seed after winning an arm wrestling match lasting 3h03 with the Frenchman Clement Chidekh (404th) 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4.

On the other side of the board, Lucas Poullain extended the winning series (there are now eight) and thanks to the partials of 7-6(5) and 6-1, he knocked out the Czech Lukas Rosol, former number 26 in the world.

champion of Faro Open on Sunday, the Frenchman will discuss access to another final with Giovanni Fonio (331st), Italian who clung to the pre-designated fourth status by beating the Spaniard Adria Soriano Barrea (544th) by 6-2 and 6-4.

In pairs, the tournament was very close to having Portuguese representation in the decision, but Jaime Faria and Duarte Vale lost in the match tie break, by 6-2, 6-7(6) and 10-6, for Jesper de Jong and Aidan Mcugh. The Dutch and the British are the first favorites and will face forces in the final (not before 15h00) with Sidane Pontjodikromo and Niels Visker, two players from the Netherlands.

 



Comments

Ads