Felix Auger-Aliassime to make main draw debut in Estoril in April

Portugal Open joined the ATP Tour in 1990, staged at the Estadio Nacional do Jamor in Oeiras until 2014 when it lost the license due to lack of sponsors. Sergi Bruguera, Carlos Costa, Thomas Muster, Alex Corretja, Carlos Moya, Juan Carlos Ferrero, David Nalbandian, Nikolay Davydenko, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Juan Martin del Potro and Stan Wawrinka have all won the title there in the past and the tournament has survived to welcome future great champions, moving to the Clube de Tenis do Estoril in Cascais in 2015 and staying there ever since.

The next edition will take place between April 27 - May 3, and the organizers have already revealed the first players who will fight for the title, with the home star Joao Sousa and the young gun Felix Auger-Aliassime signing to play in Estoril. Back in 2018, Felix lost in the first qualifying round in Portugal, still at the age of 17, making incredible progress in the last two years to crack the top-20 and earn many age records for his generation. Qualifying for the Challenger main draw at the age of 14 in March 2015, Felix has been one of the most promising youngsters on the ATP Tour ever since, becoming the youngest Miami Open semi-finalist a year ago and also reaching three ATP finals, losing them all and still waiting for the first ATP crown.

In August last year, Auger-Aliassime became the youngest player in the top-20 since Rafael Nadal and Richard Gasquet in 2005, winning 33 matches in the season behind us but losing ground a little bit in the closing months, winning only two out of last nine encounters and struggling with a left ankle injury that forced him to skip the Next Gen Finals in Milan. The start of the new season has not been much better either and we are yet to see the best tennis from the Canadian in 2020, claiming only four victories so far and hoping for a stronger pace in the weeks to come. 

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/38djr0m