“The goal has always been to participate in the Olympic Games”

Pedro Souza He was the first Portuguese tennis player to secure a place on the trip to Tokyo and represent, along with Joao Sousa, the Portuguese nation in the Olympic tennis tournament that takes place between July 24 and August 1, in a version that has been postponed by a year due to Covid-19.

The 33-year-old Lisbon native has made no secret of his satisfaction with being able to bring Portuguese colors to the other side of the globe, and in the data he collected PortugueseHe admitted that Tokyo has always been his target for this season: “It has always been the goal of participating in the Olympics. Two years ago, it became a part of my daily life, and I never hid it and fortunately I was able to.”

As a result of his position in the standings, Pedro Sousa got ahead of Joao Sousa of Guimarães and soon appeared in the initial batch of results: “It was unexpected to be on the first list, I knew I would be soon, but later. I am glad I went right away, because the suffering is over.”

Remember that the Olympic Summit was initially scheduled for the summer of 2020 – according to tradition it takes place every four years – but the pandemic complicated matters and good progress for Pedro Sousa last season – he was an ATP 250 finalist in Buenos Aires – was He could be in vain when it comes to qualifying chances: “Covid-19 lasted everything, I didn’t know if the games would be held or not rating You will calculate and how will the points count. It was anyone’s guess. I ended up playing really well last year, unfortunately that’s not going well, but I felt it was close and in the end it worked.”

A newcomer to the Olympics, Pedro Sousa thinks only of game by game and his main focus is the first round, both in singles and in pairs, where he plays alongside Joao Sousa: “I will prepare as best I can, try to play a good match and get through the first round. We will see later.”

Among all the restrictions imposed by the Japanese government is the complete absence of the public from seats, which also includes participants in the Olympics. For this reason, Pedro Sousa considers that the aim of accompanying the rest of the Portuguese delegation in other modalities is prohibited: “It’s the worst. In a different week than we’re used to, it would be nice to enjoy it that way. But that’s what we have now and we’re going to make the most of it.”