Francisco Rocha ended the Open Wolf Valley in Grande, by becoming champion of peers, shortly after Tiago Pereira ended as a finalist in singular. The young Portuguese lost the final this Sunday to George Loffhagen, who celebrated the second consecutive achievement in Algarve territory, again in the covered fields of the Tennis Center and Padel de Faro.
Organized by March 9-16, Vale do Lobo Open was the fifth ITF M25 tournament of a series of six consecutive Algarve, which ends next week in Loulé.
To compete for the seventh meeting in seven days, George Laffhagen (478th of the ATP ranking) triumphed 6-0 and 7-5 against Tiago Pereira (505) in a final divided into two moments. The Briton has dominated and won the first set unanswered, demonstrating the effectiveness of his service and the aggressiveness of his right. Pereira, visibly worn out after a demanding meeting of semi-finals against Gastão Elias, was slow to find his pace.
In the second match, the 20 -year -old algarve tennis player raised the level, betting on a more aggressive response to the opponent’s service. The effort was rewarded with a break that put him ahead (3-2), but shortly after the rain interrupted the game. When the duel resumed, almost two hours later, the indoor conditions again favored Loffhagen, who managed to break Pereira’s service at the decisive moment to close the meeting.
“It was two great weeks although the time has made everything more complicated. Today I made a very good first set, but on tennis the margins are very small and in the second set there were one or another important moment that did not fall to my side and he returned to meet. We stopped because of the rain and the conditions inside [em Faro] They are very different, I adapted better and managed to make the only break of this second part to win, ”said Laffhagen, who had already won the Quinta do Lago ITF M25 the week before.
With this victory, the Briton secured the second consecutive title and the sixth of his career, all on the fast floor, returning to the Top 400 World.
For Tiago Pereira, it was the second final of an ITF M25 “at home” in the last three weeks, and although I did not win the title, it took a positive balance: “First I am very happy with the week. Yesterday was a very complicated day, so I am very happy for the way I was able to play today despite my physical condition not being the best. He is an excellent player, I think he should be further ahead and will arrive sooner or sooner. It didn’t give me the slightest hypothesis in the first set, played very well and I couldn’t accompany him. ”
About the change that allowed him to balance the final, the Algarve explained that “I tried to have more fun and it ended up resulting well to my side because by relaxing things they started to get out better. He was also a little tense, started to think and fail more, but when we stopped and came inside it became harder to respond to his service. If I could choose a height, I would have preferred the stop shortly after doing the break, because here I would also have easier to hold my service, but I don’t control these things and as I said it was not a great week. ”
With this result, Tiago Pereira will rise more than 70 positions in the ATP ranking, establishing the best career record and approaching the top 400.
Francisco Rocha shines in pairs and conquers a third career title
If in the individual test the title escaped to the Portuguese representative, in the slope of pairs Francisco Rocha celebrated in a double dose alongside Spanish Rafael Izquierdo Luque.
The pair started the day with a triumph over the British James Story and Joe Tyler, 6-4, 4-6 and 11-9, in a meeting that began in the Valley of the Tennis Academy Wolf and ended in the covered court of the Faro Tennis and Padel Center. A few hours later, in the final, they beat Frenchman Robin Bertrand and Italian Federico Bonçoi 7-6 (4) and 6-3, thus ensuring the trophy.
At 25, Francisco Rocha now adds three peer titles in his career, two of them alongside Rafael Izquierdo Luque. The Porto won his first professional title in November 2023, also in Vale do Lobo, alongside his younger brother, Henrique Rocha. Already this year, celebrated the victory in an ITF M15 in Madrid with the Spanish partner.
With this victory, Rocha reinforces her statute in the pair circuit and closes with a golden key to Portuguese in the Open Valley.
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