Porto Alegre (RS) – It was not this time that Daniel Dutra da Silva from São Paulo achieved his first challenger title. Playing his first final of this type, the experienced 35-year-old tennis player ended up defeated by the Turkish Ergi Kirkin in the decision of the Brasil Tennis Open, on the indoor courts of Associação Leopoldina Juvenil, in Porto Alegre, with the score of 6/3 and 7/5 in 1h43 departure.
The oldest tennis player in history to reach an unprecedented challenger final, Danielzinho had a remarkable campaign throughout the week and ended this Sunday’s match with well-deserved applause from the public in Rio Grande do Sul. After falling in the last round of qualifying to compatriot Igor Gimenez, the Brazilian entered the main draw as a lucky loser and went through a very tough debut, needing 3h19 to beat Venezuelan Gonzalo Oliveira, 4th seed in the competition. Afterwards, he added three more victories until reaching the decision.
Although the long-awaited title did not come, Daniel will take a big leap in the ranking and return to the top 400, moving from the current 464th place to occupy precisely the 400th place this Monday. His career best record is 207th place, achieved in August 2022. Furthermore, the São Paulo native is the player from the country with the greatest number of achievements on the ITF circuit, having 26 titles in 47 finals played. This year, he has already won the M25 in Maceió.
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Meanwhile, it is Turkish Ergi Kirkin who reaches his first challenger title, after 13 ITF victories. Currently 299th in the rankings, the 25-year-old player will rise to 271st place, just one below his personal best, achieved in July 2022.
Turk makes the most of his chances to win
This Sunday’s match started tensely, with a break in service for each side. In the fourth game, Danielzinho missed a good opportunity to overcome his opponent’s serve and open up an advantage on the scoreboard, and ended up being punished in the final stretch of the first set, suffering two consecutive breaks.
More connected to the game, it was the Brazilian who took the lead in the second half, winning the first two games by zero. In the third, he wasted another break-point and allowed Kirkin to equalize shortly after. Despite this, Daniel continued to fight and again broke the lead in the seventh game, but in the eighth he did not maintain the lead. The game remained balanced until the end, when at 5/6 Silva served very poorly and conceded three match-points to the Turk, who took advantage of the second and ended up winning.
The game’s numbers show that Kirkin was significantly superior to Daniel in serving. While the Turk scored five aces, the Brazilian did not score any service points and committed four double faults, twice as many as his opponent. Furthermore, the visitor exploited the host’s second serve very well, winning 67% of the points in these conditions.
