MAIA/STARNBERG, December 17, 2021
Andrej Martin of Slovakia leads the semi-finals line-up at the Maia Open 2 being held at the Complexo Municipal de Ténis da Maia in Northern Portugal. The top seed of the €44,820 ATP Challenger indoor clay-court tournament defeated Sebastian Fanselow of Germany 6-2, 6-2 on Friday afternoon.
Martin saved the only break point he faced and converted four of his own 12 break-point opportunities to advance after one hour and 16 minutes. The World No. 118 will next take on Chun-hsin Tseng of Chinese Taipei for the second time in the last two weeks. The No. 7 seed edged past Eduard Esteve Lobato of Spain 6-1, 7-5 in one hour and 32 minutes. Martin and Tseng met in last week’s semis of the Maia Open with the 20-year-old Asian winning in straight sets.
In the bottom half of the draw, World No. 210 Nuno Borges is still flying the Portuguese flag. The 24-year-old Maia native beat Nikolas Sanchez Izquierdo 6-4, 6-4. Borges hit eight aces and won 69 per cent of his first-service points to seal victory in one hour and 45 minutes. He is guaranteed to crack the top 200 for the first time on Monday.
Nuno Borges only faced one break point — in the last game — but saved it with an ace to defeat Nikolas Sanchez Izquierdo 6-4, 6-4 and reach back-to-back semi-finals here in Maia.
And he’s now guaranteed to break the world’s top 200 for the first time on Monday! pic.twitter.com/hIpbbckHvZ
— Gaspar Ribeiro Lança (@gasparlanca) December 17, 2021
“Overall I played a good match. I always served well and I’m very happy to have won because I think I deserved it,” Borges said.
Up next for the fifth seed will be Elliot Benchetrit. The Moroccan alternate rallied past German qualifier Elmar Ejupovic 5-7, 6-1, 6-4. The longest encounter of the day lasted two hours and 17 minutes.
In the doubles final, Piotr Mateuszewski from Poland and Austrian David Pichler will play the all-Portuguese duo of Nuno Borges and Francisco Cabral. The home favourites will compete in their eighth title match of the season on the ATP Challenger Tour.
