Evan Hoyt’s 10th Straight Win Clinches Second Title In Portugal

By Owen Morgan

Evan Hoyt won his second ITF World Tennis Tour singles title in the space of a week in Portugal at the weekend.

Having won his first ITF singles title of the year seven days earlier, the Llanelli man repeated the feat at the $15,000 event at Quinta Do Lago on Sunday.

Hoyt’s 10th straight singles match victory on the bounce clinched the title against French number eight seed Manuel Guinard.

The Welshman’s route to the final started with a three set victory against Romanian number one seed Dragos Dima.

Hoyt took the first set 6-3, but the Romanian hit back to level the match by taking the second set to two points on a tie-break.

But Hoyt hit back hard in the third set to clinch the match by taking the decider 6-3.

Artem Dubrivhyy lay in wait in the second round, but Hoyt swept past the Russian with a 6-1, 6-2 victory.

This set up a quarter-final tie against New Zealand’s Finn Tearney, who took the first set 4-6.

But once again, Hoyt fought back from dropping a set to take the next 6-3 before shutting out the match with a 6-4 success in the third set.

The semi-final saw Hoyt face Brazilian Oscar Jose Guiterrez, who put up a strong fight in the first set, which went to a tie-break, taken by Hoyt, who then went on to clinch the match in straight sets by taking the second 6-4.

Through to his second singles final in the space of a week, Hoyt continued his blistering form against Frenchman Guinard.

The right hander took the initiative in the final by taking the first set 6-4. Having got his nose in front, there was no looking back as Hoyt claimed the second 6-3 to win the match in straight sets.

The title is Hoyt’s fifth ITF World Tennis Tour success since the turn of the year, having also won three doubles titles in 2019.

As well as winning the singles title in Quinta Do Lago, Hoyt also reached the doubles semi-final along with fellow Brit Luke Johnson, where they were defeated by Colombia’s Alejandro Gomez and Michael Zhu.