ESTORIL, May 2, 2016
Nicolas Almagro earned his first tour-level title since Nice 2012, winning Sunday’s all-Spanish-final of the second edition of the Millennium Estoril Open over eighth seed Pablo Carreno-Busta 6-7, 7-6, 6-3.
The 30-year-old from Murcia fired 12 aces, winning 80% of his first service points. Almagro converted five of his 19 break point opportunities to seal victory in two hours and 46 minutes.
He improved to 13-10 in tour-level finals, all on clay. Almagro takes away €82,450 in prize money and 250 ATP ranking points.
Eric Butorac and Scott Lipsky (photo: Estoril Open)
Fourth seeds Eric Butorac and Scott Lipsky captured the doubles title with a 6-4, 3-6, 10-8 victory over the tournament’s number one pair of Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski in one hour and 27 minutes.
It was the third title for the US-Americans and a second consecutive Estoril Open crown for Lipsky, who teamed with Treat Huey last year to win the title.
“I wished I knew the secret of our success here, because then I could just do the same thing everywhere else. I love the weather here. It reminds me of California, where I live. If we could do this every week, it’d be great,” told Lipsky.
“Eric and I have been friends for a long time, and we played together for six or eight months back in 2009. We’ve talked about playing together again for a long time. After Wimbledon last year, we gave it a shot and have had good success. Being friends on and off the court helps a lot in doubles.”
“We’re always so happy to come to Portugal. Everyone is so hospitable. As a player you’re very relaxed because you see that people are happy to have you,” Butorac added.
Matkowski was understandably disappointed.
“We had a chance to break in the beginning of the match, but we didn’t. The other guys played better. We turned it around in the second. The Match Tie-break is always a bit of a lottery, and we came up short in the end.”
Kubot could also see the positives from this week.
“It’s a good result for us. We came to get some matches in and we got four matches, which is the best possible outcome for us.”
