EL ESPINAR, July 26, 2021
After nine days of tennis action in the Andalusian town of Pozoblanco, the Spanish hard-court swing on the ATP Challenger Tour continues this week with the €66,640 Open Castilla y Leon held at the Villa de El Espinar.
Second favourite Benjamin Bonzi of France opened his title bid in the province of Segovia with a hard-fought 6-7(2), 6-4, 7-6(3) win over Bulgarian alternate Adrian Andreev on Monday evening. The World No. 111 benefited from nine doubles faults and broke his opponent’s serve five times to prevail after two hours and 48 minutes.
.@BenjaminBonzi , Top 2 del Torneo, cierra la jornada en el Open Castilla y León Villa de El Espinar.
Video: último punto del partido pic.twitter.com/XX6k1ptSCe— Tenis El Espinar (@Tenis_Espinar) July 26, 2021
Bonzi will next take on the winner of the encounter between Mirza Basic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Italian Matteo Viola.
Argentine Julio Cesar Porras caused the upset of the day. The 22-year-old tennis coach from Burgos, Spain without any ATP Ranking earned a wild card into his first pro-tennis event by winning a pre-qualifying tournament and took advantage of it. Cesar Porras knocked off World No. 274 Hiroki Moriya from Japan 7-6(6), 6-2. The Mar del Plata native outpointed his rival 75-60 after one hour and 31 minutes.
La historia del día, sin dudas. Julio Porras, de 22 años, acaba de ganar su primer partido como profesional en el Challenger de Segovia.
El marplatense, que disputaba su primer partido en el circuito, derrotó 7-6 6-2 a Moriya (277°) en la 1R del Challenger español.
DE LOCOS. pic.twitter.com/o7tp1rzPg1
— Ariel Fernández (@AFD7L) July 26, 2021
Cesar Porras could face the tournament’s top seed and former World No. 12 Feliciano Lopez of Spain in the second round. The 39-year-old Segovia champion of 2009 will start his home campaign against his compatriot and wild card entry Nikolas Sanchez Izquierdo.
In other action, Mathias Bourgue defeated Romanian teenager Filip Cristian Jianu 6-3, 6-4. The No. 7 seed from France sent down seven aces and won 82 per cent of his first-service points to secure victory in one hour and 24 minutes.
Up next for Bourgue will be either local wild card entry Alejandro Moro Canas or Portuguese Goncalo Oliveira.
