Algarve's Tiago Pereira lifted his third title in four doubles finals played in the last four weeks by becoming, this Saturday, March 23rd, champion of the Loulé Open by Cimpor, alongside Bulgarian Alexander Donski.
The 14th edition of the international tournament, which the Loulé Tennis Club organizes with the support of the Loulé City Council and the Portuguese Tennis Federation, ends this Sunday with the singles final between Jules Marie and Adria Soriano Barrera, responsible for the eliminations of Pedro Araújo and Duarte Vale.
After being champions in Faro, runners-up in Quinta do Lago and again champions in Vale do Lobo, Tiago Pereira and Alexander Donski celebrated their third victory of the month with a 7-6(6), 2-6 and 10-1 victory against Frenchman Dan Added and Czech Jakub Nicod.
The final pitted the two most highly rated pairs of the tournament face to face and was snatched away by the Portuguese-Bulgarian partnership, who reacted very well to the break in concentration in the second match to undisputedly win the match. match tie break decisive.
This was the third title of the year for Pereira and Donski, who in the previous season had already won a race side by side in the Tunisian city of Monastir.
For the 19-year-old Portuguese young man, this is the fifth achievement in the doubles variant, with these three from the Algarve being the most important as they are the first in the M25 category of the International Tennis Federation. The Bulgarian, who in Loulé chose not to compete in the singles to recover from an abdominal injury, won a doubles tournament for the 15th time.
«There are no words to describe these weeks: winning at home is an incredible feeling. I've played many tournaments at this club and I continue to love the club and the people who work here, so it's very special», considered Pereira, after the final.
Donski highlighted the increasingly better rapport between the two, decisive for «the moments of pressure and the match tie break in which we once again found a way to continue winning».
The success of Pereira and Donski has been such that the pair are already talking about aiming for new achievements and trying to prove the same success on the Challenger circuit later this year.
If in doubles the party was Portuguese, in singles the possibility of the tournament featuring a final between two home players was dispelled early in the morning. And in the early afternoon the other representative fell, so Gonçalo Oliveira's successor will not have the same nationality.
Competing for the fourth time in his career — and second this season — in a singles semi-final, Pedro Araújo (ranked 777th in the world) couldn't resist Jules Marie (223rd) and lost 6-4 and 6- 2 with the French, first seed in the tournament.
The 21-year-old Lisbon native started the race by stopping compatriot Jaime Faria's winning streak, then saved match points in consecutive meetings that closed in tie-breaker of the third set and this Saturday he was looking for the first individual final of his career, but he couldn't resist his opponent's favoritism.
After a very balanced initial phase, in which both players found it difficult to hold their respective service games, Marie got the better of Araújo's serve in the ninth game, which the Portuguese had opportunities to close, and struck the decisive blow: soon Then, the Frenchman closed the set and gained the momentum he needed to get on the right foot in the second, in which he increased his consistency and forced his opponent to make more mistakes.
In the second semi-final, Duarte Vale (581st) was ready to force another third set, but Adria Soriano Barrera (554th) never threw in the towel and ended up being rewarded with a victory in two matches, thanks to partials of 6-2 and 7-6(3).
The Portuguese canceled three match points in the second round meeting against Frederico Silva, which only concluded on Friday because of rain, and then surprised the second seed, again in three sets.
It was this recipe that he tried to repeat and that seemed well on track when he led 4-1 in the second set, but once in front of the marker he made more mistakes again and the Colombian opponent, despite being under pressure, let go of his arm and raised the score considerably. game level. In the tie-break, two consecutive double faults by Vale when trailing 3-4 practically sentenced the final chance of a comeback.
Jules Marie and Adria Soriano Barrera will face each other for the title of the Loulé Open by Cimpor starting at 11am this Sunday. The final will be broadcast live on Sport TV 00.
Both the Frenchman (32 years old) and the Colombian (24 years old) know the feeling of playing in finals and winning titles in Portugal: Marie — with 18 titles under her belt — won two races in Guimarães in 2013 and one in Porto in 2023, while Soriano Barrera — winner of two tournaments in his entire career, who started late as he focused on the North American university circuit — opened his crown in Setúbal, two years ago.
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