OEIRAS, April 3, 2021
Portuguese veteran Gastao Elias has reached his 18th singles final on the ATP Challenger Tour, his first on home soil. The 30-year-old Lourinha native will take on Zdenek Kolar from the Czech Republic in Sunday’s championship match of the €31,440 Oeiras Open 1 held at the Complexo Desportivo Nacional do Jamor in Oeiras.
Wild card entry Elias defeated qualifier Evan Furness of France 6-3, 7-5 in the stage of the final four on Saturday. The World No. 358 capitalized on five of his 15 break-point chances to advance after one hour and 53 minutes.
It’s an 18th #ATPChallenger final for Portuguese @GastaoElias, who beats Evan Furness 6-3, 7-5 to reach the decisive match at #OeirasOpen.
It’s his first final since November 2017! pic.twitter.com/wD5wNDpwvS
— Gaspar Ribeiro Lança (@gasparlanca) April 3, 2021
The meeting between Elias and Furness was the second within one month, as the Frenchman won the ITF World Tennis Tour M25 final in Vale do Lobo in early March. This time, it was the former World No. 57 left the court as the winner.
“I thought that he was better on hard court than on clay. I felt that I was the favorite today and I was in control of most of the points,” said Elias, who will appear in his first final since finishing runner-up to Pablo Cuevas in Montevideo 2017.
Kolar beats Trungelliti
Kolar defeated Marco Trungelliti of Argentina 6-3, 6-2. The No. 8 seed saved the only break point he faced and converted five of his own eight break-point opportunities to prevail after one hour and 13 minutes.
“I expected a very tough encounter. The first set was very even, with very long rallies,” Kolar said. “Marco has good hands, good feeling with the ball. He knew it would be very difficult. In the second set I started to make some easy mistakes, but I broke him early and started playing my game again and in the end it was easier because he struggled a bit mentally.”
Following four title wins on the ITF Pro Cicuit, the 24-year-old is seeking his maiden trophy on the ATP Challenger Tour. Kolar will play his second title match after Ostrava 2016.
Elias won the only meeting between the two, winning in three sets in the second round of the Sopot Challenger two years ago.
Moraing/Otte win doubles trophies
Later in the day, Mats Moraing and Oscar Otte took the doubles title. The German duo defeated Riccardo Bonadio of Italy and Denis Yevseyev from Kazakhstan 6-1, 6-4. The final lasted 47 minutes.
By clinching their first team title, Moraing and Otte pocketed €1,700 in prize money as well as 50 ATP Doubles Ranking points.
Sieh dir diesen Beitrag auf Instagram an
