LOULÉ/STARNBERG, October 17, 2021

Following his triumph at the Vale de Lobo Open in March, Kaichi Uchida of Japan claimed his second ITF World Tennis Tour title of the season in Portugal by winning the 11th Loulé Open. The No. 3 seed of the $25,000 hard-court event, hosted by the Clube de Ténis de Loulé, defeated Lucas Gerch from Germany in Sunday’s singles final 6-4, 6-4.

Uchida, who booked his place in the championship match with wins over local favourites Goncalo Falcao, Luis Faria and Pedro Araujo, as well as over Australia’s Rinky Hijikata, capitalized on two of his five break-point chances to prevail after one hour and 24 minutes.

Kaichi Uchida is the M25 #LouleOpen champion! The third seed defeats Lucas Gerch 6-4, 6-4 to win his second title of the season — both in Portugal and both in Loule (Vale do Lobo in March). pic.twitter.com/HvkLiOORaR

— Gaspar Ribeiro Lança (@gasparlanca) October 17, 2021

“I am very happy to have won this tournament. I had already won a tournament in Portugal in March, but after Vale do Lobo I went through a difficult period because I didn’t win many matches, so winning here in Loulé makes me very happy,” Uchida said.

“He is a very aggressive player and I knew he was going to force me to play more defensive tennis,” said Gerch, who also took away positive things from his week in Portugal.

“It turned out to be a very good week because in the first round I felt a lot of difficulties, but then I played very good matches in the second round, in the quarterfinals and even in the semi-finals. I had a very good week in Loulé. Conditions in Portugal are always great because it’s hot and sunny, and everyone made me feel at home,” Gerch added.