Estoril Open 2003 News and Events

Feliciano Lopez
© João Lagos Sports

Bernardo Mota's Estoril dream came to an end on Thursday after the Portuguese wild card went down to Spain's Feliciano Lopez.

The 32-year-old Mota, who was hoping to become only the third player from Portugal to reach the quarterfinals, could not repeat his first round heroics as Lopez came through 6-3, 6-4 to earn a meeting with No. 7 seed Max Mirnyi.

"I left the court knowing that I gave my best," said Mota, who won his first ATP match for six years against Raemon Sluiter on Wednesday. "I've played against a player with a very high horse power, and I pushed myself to the limits. It was very tough to play at his level. He has a heavy ball and at the baseline I can guarantee that he is one of the most powerful players in the circuit."

Rain

Mota, ranked No. 312 in the ATP Entry Rankings and playing in his first ATP tournament since Estoril in 2000, broke Lopez in the opening game of the match. However, the first rain delay of this year's tournament gave Lopez the chance he needed to regroup, and the 21-year-old Madrid resident took full advantage, breaking Mota's serve and the hearts of the Portuguese fans before wrapping up his victory in 63 minutes.

"It was a very tough match," said Lopez. "I was 1-0 down, he broke me in the very first game. Then we stopped for rain and things were different for me afterwards. I tried to play better and hit higher to his backhand and it worked well for me.

"It doesn't matter who you are playing in tennis. You can play against guys who are ranked much lower than you and they can still win on any day."

Title

Lopez, who also reached the quarterfinals earlier this year in Dubai on hard courts, now faces Mirnyi in what will be a first-time meeting after the Belarussian recovered from the loss of the first set to defeat Romanian qualifier Victor Hanescu 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Mirnyi is now through to his second quarterfinal of the year having captured his first ATP title earlier in the year in Rotterdam.

"It's never easy playing anyone that you've never seen before," said Minryi. "Obviously Victor's playing very good tennis to qualify and beat Christophe Rochus in the first round, so I knew it was going to be facing a good opponent. He showed that by breaking me in the first set with three consecutive returns, and I knew I had to be extremely focused on my game. Fortunately I was able to break him in the second set and in the third I always felt that I would have my chances to break him."

Looking ahead to playing Lopez, Mirnyi added: "Fernando is a lefty, so it will be a tough test for me. It will be another good match. He's proven himself to be a good player on the tour.

"Some of the clay courters aren't used to playing against serve and volleyers like me, so it can be an advantage. But when the temperature is cooller, and the balls are heavy, it is more difficult."