New York City.- The Dominican Republic’s VictorEstrella Burgos lost his first round match to Portugal’s Joao Sousa 6-0, 6-1,6-1 Tuesday at the Flushing Tennis stadium.Burgos recently made history at the age of 34 bybecoming the oldest first-time ATP World Tour winner in the Open Era. He’s alsobecome the first player from the Dominican Republic to win an ATP World Tourevent.
He taught himself how to play tennis as a boy and inhis 20s, he taught the sport for years to fund his future career and achieveDominican tennis history. When he could finally afford to go pro at the age of26, people laughed at him. “It’s too late,” they told him.
But the lifelong Santiago resident has proved themwrong even though he lost his first round match yesterday and is now out ofthis year’s Open, the fact that he made it there at all is historic indeed.