Tennis Atlantic

Haase upsets Lopez, Almagro beats Mayer at Estoril Open 2015 Wednesday
Manuel Traquete for Tennis Atlantic

Gasquet beat De Schepper (photo credit: Manuel Traquete)

Wednesday at the Estoril Open saw the first four round of 16 matches played, including the first ever night session in the tournament’s history.

The day began with Nicolas Almagro winning a tight first set and then running away with the second set against Leonardo Mayer, with a strong performance that firmly established him as a contender to take the trophy home on Sunday. Strong serving was the key to Almagro’s victory, as he won 86% of his first serve points and barely gave Mayer a look on return. Almagro’s next opponent will be Richard Gasquet, who had no trouble at all beating De Schepper in two routine sets, easily exposing De Schepper’s poor movement on the clay.

Almagro d. Mayer 7-6(4) 6-2

Gasquet d. De Schepper 6-2 6-3

In the most dramatic match of the day, Robin Haase saved two match points in the second set to record an incredible comeback win over the #1 seed of the tournament and world #12 Feliciano Lopez. It was quite a stunning result, not so much the fact that Haase won but how he did, considering he’s known for both choking close matches and losing tiebreaks.  He didn’t falter this time though and recorded another excellent win this year after beating Wawrinka in the California desert last month.

His prize will be a QF showdown against upcoming Aussie Nick Kyrgios, who won the tournament’s first ever night session against Filip Krajinovic 6-3 6-3; as had been the case yesterday, Kyrgios served huge and was relentless aggressive from the baseline all throughout, while despite an aesthetically pleasing game Krajinovic showed that he lacks the firepower and consistency to really be a big factor at ATP level, with a lot of loose errors and poor play on big points proving his undoing. This is the first QF for Kyrgios at an ATP level event, after reaching 2 Slam QFs previously.