Double victory for La Nucia tennis player
La Nucía tennis player Lucía Llinares Domingo won the J4 Tournament ( part of the world ITF Junior Under18 circuit), on a hard court. With this victory, the tennis player had a double, having won the J5 Tournament in Porto ITF on clay the week before. Lucía Llinares continues her winning streak after being proclaimed junior regional tennis champion in August.
The Monte Aventino de Porto Tennis Club hosted this ITF Under 18 J4 Porto ‘ Taca Diogo Napoles’ Tournament, from September 13 to 20, on hard courts. Lucía Llinares after winning the previous week in Portugal started as seed number 4. The tournament consisted of a 64player draw, with a final main draw of 32 tennis players.
In the first round of the tournament Lucía Llinares played against the Portuguese Carolina Azadinho, whom she defeated 62 and 64. In the second round Lucia beat French tennis player Clemence Thouard, 62 and 60.
Lucía's game improved match by match and in the quarterfinals, she beat Carolina Gómez from Madrid by a double 61. The semifinal match was the most difficult of the tournament for Lucia. The tournament was played on a hard court but due to rain, they had to change clubs. The game that was to start at 09.00 in the morning ended at 23.00 and was played indoors and on clay. Despite all the difficulties and losing the first set, Lucía Llinares beat Spaniard Berta Miret in three sets, ( 36, 63 and 60), demonstrating her great mental strength and her ability to overcome adversity.
Grand finale
Rain forced the final of this ITF U18 Porto J4 Tournament to also be played indoors. Here Lucía Llinares was pitted against Argentine player Lucía Peyre, seed number 2 of the tournament. The first set was very even; Lucía had a set ball but ended up losing it in the tie break by the minimum. Despite losing the first set, Lucia recovered in the second, scoring 62, she then went on to prevail in the decisive third set 63, winning the match 21 and winning this international ITF under 18 tournament, despite being 17 years old With this tournament, Lucía Llinares has two consecutive victories in international ITF under 18 tennis tournaments in Portugal, in just two weeks. Lucia has played and won a total of 10 games in two intense weeks. Now it's time to rest and continue preparing for her next matches, in this atypical but successful 2020, together with her coach Richard Escudero.
Four ITF tournaments
With this victory in the ITF U18 Oporto J4 Tournament, Lucía Llinares has won four rounds of the ' ITF Junior U18 World' circuit, despite being 17 and competing against older rivals. To her two triumphs in the two ITF tournaments in Porto, we must add those achieved in 2019 in ITF Denmark and in 2018 in ITF Algeria.