A day full of surprises at the Millennium Estoril Open once again. Three top-50 and tournament seeds are out. Two were defeated by qualifiers.
Stadium Millennium
At 1 pm started the play on the main court with Nicolas Almagro and Benoit Paire. It was expected a much more tight match but the Spaniard, who is defending the title here this week, got the win in less than an hour. Almagro defeated Paire by the score of 6-3 6-2. The Frenchman was the first seed to fall out.
After the European duel, there was a transatlantic battle. The qualifier Bjorn Fratangelo surprised everyone by beating the home player and sixth seed João Sousa. The match lasted a little bit more than an hour and was concluded in straight sets. Sousa saved 6 match points in the last game but Bjorn was stronger. The North-American won 6-3 6-4.
Juan Martin del Potro dispatched Yuichi Sugita in the third match of the day in Stadium Millennium. The Argentinean won 6-1 6-3 in 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Paul-Henri Mathieu retired from his match against Pedro Sousa, a Portuguese wild card. His retirement was due to a right calf injury. The match was 3-6 6-4, being the first set to the French and the second one to Sousa.
Court Cascais
Frederico Ferreira Silva and Gastão Elias teamed up to face Ariel Behar and Aliaksandr Bury. The match ended 6-3 7-6(6) to Behar/Bury.
The biggest surprise of the day was definitely João Domingues win over Kyle Edmund. The Portuguese qualifier saved 2 match points and recovered from two breaks down in the final set to defeat the British player. Kyle was up 5-2 serving for the match when Domingues started the comeback. João Domingues gets his first ATP Main Draw win and first top-100 win. He won 6-4 3-6 7-6(2) in almost three hours.
Ryan Harrison was meeting Guillermo Garcia-Lopez for the fifth time and the American kept the tradition and won. Harrison got the win in three tough sets, 6-3 2-6 6-2.
To end the day on Court Cascais it was a doubles match. The team Marrero/Robredo outlasted Cunha-Silva/Gil to book a place in the quarterfinals. The double will now face Gilles Muller/Malek Jaziri.
Court 3
A lot of matches were played today so the tournament needed to use the third court.
Taro Daniel kicked off Renzo Olivo in three tight sets which lasted 2 hours and 55 minutes. In a very intense match, the Japanese won 7-6(2) 4-6 7-5.
The second match was featured by Carlos Berlocq and Elias Ymer. The former champion of an ATP tournament here in Portugal defeated the ATP NextGen star by the score of 7-5 6-4.
To close the day, Jaziri/Muller defeated the number two seeds Wesley Koolhof and Matwe Middelkoop. The Tunisian and the Luxembourger won 4-6 6-3 11-9.