Sports 26 July 2026

The Estoril Open final is Van Assche against Blockx, and nobody had this on their card

The 2026 Estoril Open final is played on Sunday at Estádio Millennium between France's Luca Van Assche and Belgium's Alexander Blockx — an all-unseeded final that guarantees a first-time champion.

The Estoril Open is getting a brand-new champion, and nobody saw it coming. Sunday’s final at Estádio Millennium pits France’s Luca Van Assche against Belgium’s Alexander Blockx — two players who walked into the draw unseeded and spent the week removing the favourites one by one.

Who is in the Estoril Open final?

Van Assche, 21, and Blockx, who reaches his first ATP tour final. It is a young man’s final on Portuguese clay, and their first meeting since February, when the Frenchman won 6-2, 6-4 on a hard court. On clay, with a title on the line, that record is worth roughly what you want it to be worth.

How did they get there?

The hard way, both of them. Van Assche opened his tournament by knocking out Portugal’s Frederico Ferreira Silva in three sets, saw off Pablo Carreño Busta, took down Andrey Rublev 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 and closed the semi-final against Hugo Gaston 6-4, 7-5 without needing a decider. Blockx went even closer to the edge: he beat Roman Burruchaga in three, then survived back-to-back tie-breaks to topple second seed Luciano Darderi 5-7, 7-6, 7-6.

What about the Portuguese players?

Short runs, but not silent ones. Nuno Borges went out in the second round to Burruchaga 6-1, 4-6, 6-3, and Jaime Faria was stopped in the quarter-finals by Darderi, having taken the opening set 6-2 before the Italian turned it round 7-5, 6-2. With several Portuguese players in the draw, it left the feeling there was one more day in it — the same feeling as the start of Wimbledon.

The upside of a draw like this is that neither man has won anything of this size before, which tends to produce finals that are nervous and rather lovely. Order of play and start times are on the tournament’s official site.

By Vasco Almada

Image: André Silva from Portugal / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

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