For the first time in history, a Portuguese man has triumphed at an ATP tournament on Portuguese soil. Crowd favorite Joao Sousa made such history by beating Frances Tiafoe 6-4, 6-4 in the final of the Estoril Open on Sunday afternoon.
The world No. 68 struck four aces without double-faulting and broke Tiafoe’s serve four times while advancing in one hour and 19 minutes.
“It’s just amazing. It’s a dream come true,” Sousa assured. “It is very special for a Portuguese player to win here on home soil. I know how hard the organization worked to make this tournament one of the best in the world and it’s just amazing. The crowd was unbelievable.”
“I know how big this is for him,” Tiafoe noted. “The whole country is behind him. He’s felt that since the beginning of the week. There are billboards with him here. I bet he’s wanted to win this event for all the years of his career. It’s huge. He played too good and the crowd was definitely for him. It was tough for me. I couldn’t get my feet wet today. He’s one of the nicest guys on tour too, so I have a lot of respect for him.
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There was always going to be a German champion on home soil heading into Sunday at the BMW Open in Munich, because No. 1 seed and defending champion Alexander Zverev was facing three-time Munich winner Philipp Kohlschreiber. Youth got the best of experience, as Zverev prevailed 6-3, 6-3 in one hour and 11 minutes.
“I am obviously very happy with how I played,” the world No. 3 commented. “[I am] very happy to get back-to-back titles here. It is a very special event for me so I am very happy that I could defend my title.”
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Taro Daniel was this week’s lone first-time champion. Daniel, the world No. 114 from Japan, got the job done in straight sets but needed two hours 22 minutes to hold off fellow first-time finalist Malek Jaziri 7-6(4), 6-4 at the Istanbul Open.
“Obviously (I’m) really happy,” Daniel said. “I think today was a great match–a lot of long rallies from the beginning until the end. Very happy. I’m obviously pretty surprised that I suddenly won an ATP title. But I guess things like this happen.”
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congrats to the winners