Pereira fights for 3h40 and reaches the 1st challenger semifinal at 33

Concepción (Chile) – For the first time in his professional career, José Pereira will compete in a challenger semifinal. And the experienced 33-year-old from Pernambuco achieved this feat after winning a tough game this Friday. He stayed on court for 3h40 to beat 21-year-old Ecuadorian Alvaro Guillen Meza, 4th seed in the tournament and 294th in the rankings, by 6/4, 4/6 and 7/5.

Pereira had already reached the quarterfinals in eight other challenger level tournaments, the most recent in October last year. And only now is he able to overcome this barrier. In his professional career, he has accumulated 12 ITF titles and has been to 19 other finals.

The campaign to the semifinals in Concepción yields 17 ATP points for Pereira, 14 of the three wins in the main draw and three more for having gone through two rounds in qualifying. Provisionally, he is rising to 556th place, could approach 510th place if he is a finalist and go up to 440th place if he wins the title. His best ranking is 232nd, achieved in 2015.

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Pereira’s opponent in this Saturday’s semifinal will be Peruvian Gonzalo Bueno, a 20-year-old young man and 361st in the rankings, in an unprecedented clash on the circuit. On the other side of the bracket, Argentine 2nd seed Juan Pablo Ficovich is already in the semis and could face compatriot Facundo Mena or Greek Stefanos Sakellaridis.

Match had 15 breaks and 43 break-points played

This Friday’s long match began with a first set with five service breaks. The Ecuadorian was twice above the break and did not maintain the advantage, at 1/0 and 3/2. Pereira also escaped two break-points in 4/4 and broke again in the last game of the partial. In the second set, however, the Brazilian led 4/2, but lost four games in a row.

The last set was full of long games and opportunities for both sides, so much so that Pereira faced eight break-points and had seven in favor. The Ecuadorian was the first to break and led by 3/2. Pereira turned the score to 5/3, had a match point, but was broken when serving for the game. However, the Brazilian broke again in the last game of the match to reach victory. In total, the game had 15 breaks, 8 to 7 for Pereira, and 43 break-points played. He had 19 break chances and faced 24.