Portuguese men’s tennis No1 from Faro, Rui Machado, continued his excellent late season clay court form by reaching the semi-finals in Madrid before going out to local hero Daniel Gimeno-Traver.
Now ranked an unprecedented 59th in the world, the 27-year-old is again the top seed at this week’s Sicilian Open in Palermo.
Elsewhere Britain’s Andy Murray celebrated his third tournament success of the year in Thailand to move into third place in the world rankings.
