MAIA, November 19, 2019

In the final week of the season on the ATP Challenger Tour, Portugal welcomes players and fans to the inaugural Maia Open held on indoor clay at the Complexo Municipal de Tenis da Maia. World No. 110 Andrej Martin from Slovakia is the top seed and opened his title bid on Tuesday with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Gian Marco Moroni of Italy.

Martin is joined by Italians Thomas Fabbiano, Paolo Lorenzi and Gianluca Mager as the leading men at the €46,600 event. Mager was also in second-round action and defeated Zdenek Kolar 6-4, 6-1 from the Czech Republic.

The local players experienced a tough start into the tournament, as four of the five wild card entries fell in the opening round on Monday. World No. 621 Tiago Cacao was the only one of the quartet, who managed to win a set pushing the match against Jurij Rodionov from Austria the distance. Rodionov sent down eight aces and won 52 per cent of the total points played to eventually secure a6-4, 6-7(6), 6-3 victory in two hours and 34 minutes. The 20-year-old will next take on No. 3 seed Lorenzi.

World No. 802 Luis Faria lost 6-0, 6-2 against Vit Kopriva from the Czech Republic, World No. 1,915 Joao Montiero fell 6-2, 6-2 to Zdenek Kolar and World No. 1,176 Francisco Cabral lost 6-4, 6-2 to Austria’s Maximilian Neuchrist.

Only Nuno Borges, who has been practicing for many year at this club, clinched a 6-1, 7-6(9) victory over Roberto Ortega-Olmedo of Spain in front of his friends and family on Tuesday afternoon. The World No. 616 from Portugal capitalized on three of his eight break point chances to reach the second round after one hour and 40 minutes.

“It is undoubtedly a very special moment, I really don’t have words,” Borges said. “I was very anxious, very
nervous, especially at the end of the match. This win means a lot to me.” 22-year-old Borges will next take on No. 5 seed Attila Balazs of Hungary.