Portugal’s only ATP Masters Series tournament, the Estoril Open, got under way at the Jamor National Stadium complex on Monday.
Injury forced Nikolay Davydenko to join another intended top seed, James Blake, on the list of late withdrawals prompting a last minute invitation to French crowd pleaser Gael Monfils.
On the home front, Faro’s Rui Machado and Leonardo Tavares received wild card entries to line up alongside Frederico Gil in the main draw.
The last mentioned raced into an early 6-2 lead over No6 seed Florian Mayer in his opener before the German fought back, but sensationally Gil still managed to close out the match in three after losing a second set tie-break.
He faced relative unknown Santiago Giraldo yesterday (Thursday) and could meet Machado in the quarter-finals.
The Algarvian was equally impressive against the once highly ranked Nicolas Massu but will have had to overcome world No15 and recent Indian Wells winner Ivan Ljubicic to make the last eight.
With Tavares also successful on Tuesday, three Portuguese men thus reached the second round for the first time in the tournament’s history.
Away from the domestic euphoria, Spain’s defending champion Albert Montanes is a candidate for the short list to reach Sunday’s final, along with 2008 Estoril debut victor and best player in the world Roger Federer.
In the women’s draw, Hungary’s Agnes Szaway is seeded ahead of Romanian Sorana Cirstea but the exploits of Portuguese youngsters Michelle Brito and Maria Joao Koehler should be of more interest to the home crowd.
