Premium
The Romanian-Croatian pair Victor Vlad Cornea/Franko Skugor qualified, on Thursday, for the semifinals of the doubles event of the challenger tennis tournament in Oeiras (Portugal), with total prizes of 145,000 EUR, defeating Czech-Slovak pair Petr Nouza/Igor Zelenay with 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 11-9.
Cornea and Skugor, 4th seeded, managed to win after more than two hours of playing (2 h 04 min), told Agerpres.
In the first act, Cornea and his partner missed a set point at 5-4, but managed to win in the tiebreak (7-5). Nouza and Zelenay dominated the second set, winning 6-3. In the super tiebreak, the Czech-Slovak pair led 6-1, but Cornea and Skugor made a formidable comeback and leveled, 7-7. The Romanian-Croatian pair managed five consecutive points, from 4-7 to 9-7, and closed the accounts only at the third match point, 11-9.
Cornea and Skugor secured a check for 2,940 EUR and 45 ATP points in doubles, and in the penultimate act they will face the pair Sander Arends (Netherlands)/Petros Tsitsipas (Greece).
