ESTORIL, April 30, 2019
The first four players advanced to the Millennium Estoril Open on Monday headlined by local favourite Joao Domingues. The 25-year-old qualifier celebrated the biggest win of his career, beating World No. 27 Alex de Minaur from Australia 6-2, 2-6, 6-2.
Domingues broke his opponent’s serve four times to secure victory in one hour and 55 minutes. The World No. 214 from Portugal will next challenge the winner of the all-Australian encounter between Bernard Tomic and John Millman.
Portuguese power 👊
🇵🇹 João Domingues upsets World No. 27 Alex de Minaur to reach the second round in Estoril 💪
Watch the @EstorilOpen live on @TennisTV pic.twitter.com/fvm2joYBme
— ATP Tour (@ATP_Tour) 29. April 2019
Opelka sets up Monfils clash
Earlier in the day, Reilly Opelka defeated Portuguese wild card entry Pedro Sousa 7-6(2), 6-4. The 21-year-old US-American fired 13 aces, winning 84 per cent of his first service points to advance in one hour and 24 minutes.
Reilly Opelka (photo: Brigitte Urban)
“The match went well today. Unfortunately, Pedro twisted his ankle in the first set but he definitely had his chances to beat me. He was up a break in the second set. He is a pretty good ball striker, playing aggressive. It was tough to beat him,” Opelka said afterwards.
Opelka will next play Frenchman Gael Monfils. “I haven’t played him before. I expect a lot of balls to come back. He is such a great athlete and also a taller guy with a graet reach. I am looking forward to another tough match,” the Florida resident commented on his upcoming opponent and seems to feel comfortable on the Portuguese Riviera.
“I was pretty impressed with the venue. As soon as we arrived here we went downtown and the city is beautiful. We enjoyed our dinners, good food and the view from the hotel room, located right next to the water,” Opelka said.
In other matches, Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan eased past US-American Mackenzie McDonald 6-2, 6-4 to face either No. 8 seed Frances Tiafoe from the United States or Mikhail Kukushkin from Kazakhstan. In an all-South-American affair, Guido Andreozzi from Argentina beat Bolivia’s Hugo Dellien 6-3, 6-3. Andreozzi will play the tournament’s top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the second round.
