Estoril Open 2003 News and Events

Bernardo Mota
© João Lagos Sports

Six years after his last ATP match win, wild card Bernardo Mota became the first Portuguese player to reach the second round at the Estoril Open since Nuno Marques in 1999 after defeating Raemon Sluiter 7-6(1), 3-6, 7-6(3) when their match resumed on Wednesday.

Mota, the 32-year-old from Lisbon who last reached the second round on the ATP circuit in Casablanca in 1997 (d. Chesnokov), was ranked 246 places below his Dutch opponent at No. 312 coming into the match, which was stopped at one set all on Tuesday for bad light.

When play resumed on court Central, the final set went with serve until the 11th game, when Sluiter broke to lead 6-5 and serve for the match. However, backed by a partisan crowd, Mota broke back and took control of the tie-break, clinching a famous victory when Sluiter's attempted volley hit the net.

"The years I've been playing here in Estoril helped me to win today's match," said Mota. "I always play like this, believing in every point and fighting until the end. It is tough to define [Sluiter's] type of game. With these kind of balls, very light and with the wind blowing, most guys have been dealing with problems. Today, Sluiter felt that, because he hits the ball very high, and if he misses that much the ball runs out."

More Years

Mota, who turned pro in 1991 and has won one doubles title in Oporto in 1996, said there was plenty of life in him yet. "I'm used to people who call me 'old guy'. I don't it like when they call me that and today I showed them that I can be around for a few more years."

Mota, who is playing in his first ATP tournament since Estoril in 2000 (l. to Chela), also reached the second round at the Estadio Nacional in 1996 before losing to Todd Martin. He now meets Spain's Feliciano Lopez for a place in the quarterfinals, hoping to become the first since Marques in 1995 to get that far, and only the third in the history of the tournament (Cunha Silva, 1992).

"Now I'm going to have a very tough match," added Mota. "I've already practiced with Feliciano and his ball is very heavy."

First Win

Elsewhere, sixth seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov moved through to the second round in Estoril for the first time in six attempts after he recorded an emphatic 6-1, 6-0 victory over Irakli Labadze. Kafelnikov, who was 0-5 in Estoril before this year, took just 47 minutes to book a meeting with Romania's Adrian Voinea.

"It's my sixth time here in Estoril and I've finally won a match," said Kafelnikov. "If I can play consistently tomorrow, maybe I can go further here, but it's too far ahead to be thinking of the final.

Kafelnikov, who represented Russia in last week's Davis Cup loss to Argentina, added: "You can't get better clay court preparation than playing for six or seven days against guys like Gaudio in Argentina. I've had the best preparation coming in here this year. I think the important factor is if I can win two, three, maybe four matches in a row. It's a long time since I have won consistent matches. Maybe this week I'll get the necessary confidence."