João Sousa follows the quarterfinals in pairs, as well as João Domingues in singles. Already Pedro Sousa said goodbye to the singles chart in the first round.
[dropcap type=”background”]T[/dropcap]he first round of the 2019 edition of the Millennium Estoril Open had a bittersweet flavour for the Portuguese in competition. While João Sousa, who came on court for a pair game, and João Domingues celebrated victory, Pedro Sousa said a premature goodbye to the singles competition.
Court Millennium looked forward to hosting the current Estoril Open titleholder, João Sousa. The Portuguese tennis player joined the Argentinean Leonardo Mayer on Monday to secure access to the quarterfinals of the competition.
In a game marked by quick ball exchange, the Portuguese-Argentine duo beat Mexican Santiago Gonzales and Pakistan’s Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi in the 6-4 and 6-4 semi-finals.
Speaking to reporters at the end of the match, Sousa revealed that this was a “good meeting and it is good to start winning to better prepare the game in the singular event.”
After celebrating their victory at the Estoril Tennis Club, João Sousa and Leonardo Mayer, the Estoril Open semi-finalists in 2018, will face the British Luke Bambridge and Jonny O’Mara.
João Sousa was also presented this Monday as the most recent member of the MEO ambassadors team, Altice Portugal brand, joining names such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Frederico Morais of surf and Miguel Oliveira of motorsport. On the sidelines of the partnership, João Sousa, who is 51st in the ATP ranking, qualified his opponent in singles as “very strong”. At 3 pm on Tuesday, the Portuguese will start defending the Estoril Open title against Australian Alexei Popyrin, who reached the main table via qualifying.
The 19-year-old Australian was a junior champion at Roland Garros in 2017. He has already reached the third round of the Australian Open and the second round of the Indian Wells Masters 1,000.
João Domingues surprised and is in the second round
Already João Domingues ‘arrived, saw and won’. The Portuguese, who is 214th place in the ATP ranking, needed three sets to get the better of the Australian Alex de Minaur, who is ranked 27th in the same ranking.
The 25-year-old Portuguese man managed to break the favour of the sixth seed in the race with the partial 6-2; 2-6 and 6-2. In the first set, Domingues entered determined and got the better of the Australian who was returning to play after an injury.
In fact, the number 27 of the ATP ranking had to receive medical assistance in court while the second set was running. When returning to the game, it managed to impose the rhythm on the Portuguese and equalled the game. Already in the third set, João Domingues comes back to surprise everyone and everything, thus responding to the effusive support of the stands.
The 25-year-old will now face Bernard Tomic or John Millman in the second round, who are also facing each other on Tuesday.
The other Portuguese in the race, Pedro Sousa, was eliminated in the singular, after losing against North American Reilly Opelka in two sets, by 7-6 and 6-4. The 30-year-old came to the 2019 edition with a wild card but would end up saying goodbye at the end of 1h24.
