MAIA/STARNBERG, December 7, 2021
Home favourite Joao Domingues headlined Tuesday’s first-round action at the Maia Open, as he recovered from a shaky start to defeat Matthieu Perchicot of France 2-6, 7-6(2), 6-1.
World No. 436 Perchicot got off to a strong start by breaking the fourth seed of the €44,820 ATP Challenger clay-court tournament in Northern Portugal in the first game and breezed through the opening set.
The 29-year-old from Biarritz also broke Domingues’ serve at the beginning of the second set but the Portuguese clawed his way back into the contest on the back of strong second serve returns to clinch the set and force a decider. The World No. 248 from Porto then completed the comeback victory to seal victory in two hours and five minutes.
Up next for Domingues will be either Frenchman Calvin Hemery or 19-year-old local wild card entry Pedro Araujo.
Tiago Cacao also came back from a set down to overcome David Pichler from Austria 2-6, 6-1, 6-4. The wild card from Portugal converted four of his six break-point opportunities to prevail after one hour and 54 minutes. Cacao will next play the winner of the encounter between his compatriot and No. 3 seed Gastao Elias and Eduard Esteve Lobato of Spain.
In other action, Elliot Benchetrit of Morocco fought past Italian qualifier Lorenzo Bocchi 6-4, 0-6, 7-6(3) to set a second-round clash with top seed Andrej Martin from Slovakia. In the bottom half of the draw, Spanish qualifier Miguel Damas rallied past Julien Cagnina of Belgium 0-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 and will next take on second-seeded Belgian Kimmer Coppejans.
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