Estoril Open: World No. 430 Tiago Torres rallies past Basilashvili in debut

Portuguese tennis player Tiago Torres feared making a fool of himself on Monday in his debut at the Estoril Open, but his goal of putting on a show ultimately landed him in the second round after defeating Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili.

A Rocky Start

"I told [coach] Vasco [Martins]: 'I'm here making a fool of myself.' Eighteen minutes in and it was 4-1, I couldn't play, he was playing very fast and it was very hard for me to get used to his playing style. And I just thought to myself, I have to try to put on a bit of a show for these people who came to watch. I don't want to play my first time at the Estoril Open and lose in 40 minutes. So, I gave my best and in the end it worked out," he said.

The national champion and world No. 430 defeated Basilashvili (No. 135) 6-4, 6-2, and admitted there was some lack of merit from his opponent at the start of his comeback, after the Georgian made "three, four basic errors from someone who was half-disconnected."

"I managed to get into it, and when he tried to reconnect it was already too late, basically that was it. I think it was more his lack of merit at the start than my merit. Then obviously I got into the game and it went beautifully, but at the start it was clearly his lack of merit for me," he said.

Managing Emotions

Confessing that his little devil whispers in his ear to go celebrate and the little angel says "there's a match on Wednesday" against Chilean Alejandro Tabilo, and he has to calm down, Torres admitted that "it's not easy at all" to manage emotions in such a match.

"I won the first set and I was like, and now? Is it possible to win two? Will I win two? A lot goes through your mind. One thing is playing the tournaments I'm used to playing, where I'm used to winning several matches and used to losing, it's life. But in these tournaments, clearly, when I made it 4-4 in the first set, I thought, can I win? Maybe I can, I don't know. Many emotions, I managed them well, fortunately," he stated.

Torres, 24, admitted it wasn't easy to manage the emotion during the match and even before, finding himself "in a whirlwind of emotions."

"I'm not even myself that I entered the Estoril Open, let alone winning a round. It was brutal, I had never played with so many people, I had played with 200, 300 people. Never with a basically full stadium. At the start it was very complicated, I was very nervous, but as the match went on I managed to show good tennis and win. I'm very happy," he said.

A Surprise Invitation

Invited by the organization, when he only thought about being able to play the qualifiers, Tiago Torres confessed that he had "two days to digest all this" and that on Sunday he didn't even train "anything special" because he was "so nervous."

"I'm emotional, not here in front of you, but back there, I'll cry, I don't know. It's the work of many years, of people, many people who believed in me, who gave everything for me, of my father, who always travels to see me play, the federation has also helped me a lot," he mentioned.

A Year Above Expectations

After playing in the American college championship, Tiago Torres became a full-time professional a year ago and his goal was to now enter the top 500, which he has already achieved, with today's victory guaranteeing entry into the top 400.

"It has been a year above expectations. Not only in terms of ranking, it might not even be in terms of ranking, it could be in terms of work, in terms of the level I'm playing. Sometimes the ranking doesn't match the level you're playing, but fortunately I think I'm playing better than my ranking, and that's very important, but I have to show it on the court, not just in training, so it's day by day and keep going," he concluded.