STARNBERG, December 1, 2020
Pedro Sousa opened his home campaign at the Maia Open in Portugal with a comfortable 6-2, 6-2 win over French qualifier Maxime Hamou on Tuesday. The No. 2 seed of the €44,820 clay-court event broke his opponent’s serve five times to advance to the second round in only 56 minutes.
“The first one is always complicated, in particular facing a player from the qualifying, who already has some rhythm in these conditions. I think I played an excellent match and I am very happy to advance. I didn’t know him very well, Rui [Machado, coach] gave me some tips, but I was more concerned with what I could do and things ended up going well,” said Sousa
World No. 113 Sousa will next take on fellow Portuguese Gastao Elias. The 30-year-old wild card entry defeated Pavel Kotov of Russia 6-2, 7-5. Elias won 58 per cent of the total points played to secure victory in one hour and 24 minutes.
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In other action, Andrea Arnaboldi knocked out top seed Pedro Martinez of Spain 6-1, 6-2. The World No. 276 from Italy sent down six aces and won 80 per cent of his first-service points to prevail in 68 minutes. Up next for Arnaboldi will be either Hugo Grenier of France of Frederico Ferreira Silva of Portgual, who finished runner-up to Felipe Meligeni Rodrigues Alves in last week’s Sao Paulo Open Tennis in Brazil.
No. 3 seed Jozef Kovalik booked his spot in the second round in Maia following a hard-fought 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 win over Julian Lenz from Germany. The World No. 131 from Slovakia will next face Turkish qualifier Altug Celikbilek, who edged past Portuguese wild card Goncalo Oliveira 2-6, 7-5, 7-6(3). The encounter lasted two hours and 17 minutes.
