VALE DO LOBO/STARNBERG, November 17, 2025
Alastair Gray celebrated twice on Sunday as he claimed the singles title at the Vale do Lobo Open 2, the first of two consecutive ITF World Tennis Tour M25 tournaments hosted by the Portuguese Tennis Federation at the Vale do Lobo Tennis Academy. Persistent rain forced a packed schedule, leaving the Briton to complete both his semifinal and the final on the same day.
The 27-year-old opened the day by winning a three-set semifinal and returned under the floodlights – after several weather-related interruptions – to lift the 11th trophy of his career. In the final, Gray recovered from a break down in both sets to secure the championship.
Gray, ranked World No. 343, defeated Ukrainian qualifier Georgii Kravchenko 6-3, 7-5 to seal the title.
Earlier in the day, the Brit had to work even harder, edging Germany’s Rudolf Molleker 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 in a one hour 54 minute semifinal that had been suspended the previous day at 1-1 in the opening set due to worsening conditions caused by Storm Claudia.
“It feels really good to end the day like this,” Gray said after receiving his trophy in the rain. “It was a very difficult week because of the constant rain and having to change venues several times, but the organisation couldn’t have done a better job. Today, despite the very tough conditions, we managed to finish.”
Born in Twickenham, Gray had previously won finals in Indore, Bhopal, Glasgow and Dublin. His victory in Vale do Lobo extends his perfect record in finals this season to 5-0, although he needed to dig deep, recovering from 1-3 in the first set and 3-5 in the second.
“We played in completely different conditions compared to the rest of the week – at night and in very cold weather,” he explained. “The balls were completely ‘dead’, so you had to generate all the power yourself. I struggled to find the right balance at the beginning because the bounce was so different, and the more heavily spun balls didn’t have the same effect. But I eventually adapted, mixed up my game, and fortunately it worked. I’m really happy.”
