The Portuguese Tiago Boschmans, Diogo Marques, João António, Tomás Almeida, Tomás Cortez, Afonso Portugal and André Stewart qualified for the second of three rounds of the qualifying do Vale do Lobo Open I, the first of two ITF M25 tournaments that the Portuguese Tennis Federation (FPT) will promote successively at the Vale do Lobo Tennis Academy, in Loulé, between the 12th and 19th and between the 19th and 26th of November.
The seven Portuguese winners of this opening round joined Francisco Rocha (1150th in the ATP rankings) and Gonçalo Falcão (1659th), who, as they were seeded — sixth and 15th respectively — did not need to play the first round.
Afonso Portugal was the first to secure a place in the second round, beating fellow Portuguese Tomás Tenil 6-0 and 6-0, and will face Rayane Oumaouche (1419th and 12th seed).
Tiago Boschmans also fought a 100% Portuguese duel early in the morning and beat João Portugal 7-5 and 7-5. In this way, the 18-year-old scheduled a meeting with the pre-designated third, the German Leopold Zima (903rd).
The other Portuguese to move forward at the expense of a compatriot was Diogo Marques. «Just two days after winning the men's doubles title in the Absolute National Championship alongside Martim Simões, the Setúbal Tennis Club player confirmed his favoritism against Daniel Silva (6-2 and 6-1) and advanced in an authoritative manner for the second round. Next comes the meeting with the Italian Peter Buldorini (1068th), the fifth highest ranked in the qualifying», describes the FPT.
The other Portuguese victories were recorded by João António (6-1, 2-1 and withdrawal from Spaniard Sergio Davila Godoy), Tomás Almeida (6-4 and 6-1 over Australian Anthony Popyrin), Tomás Cortez (6-0 and 6-2 against Shiva Swaroop Jayagopi) and André Stewart (6-3 and 6-1 against Russell Henderson).
The list of entries in the main table of Vale do Lobo Open I is led by the French Jules Marie (254th) and Lucas Poullain (25th) and is led by the Portuguese delegation Henrique Rocha (288th) and Jaime Faria (411th), who on Saturday they discussed the title of absolute national champion, with victory smiling at the youngest and best ranked in the hierarchy.
The best-known name is that of Kyle Edmund, a 28-year-old Brit who reached number 14 in the world rankings in October 2018 (the year in which he reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open) and who is currently ranked 535th after dealing with multiple injuries to his left knee and wrists.
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