Barbara Schett and Mats Wilander could have kept the tone of the presentation in “Nuno Borgués” by accentuating the ‘g’ as if there was a ‘u’ after it (the best possible explanation to explain the somewhat strange way they pronounced the Portuguese man’s name) but that was the only trace of “ignorance” in relation to the tennis player from Maia who, in the week in which he occupied the best position ever in the rankingreturned to a fourth round of Grand Slam at the US Open, a tournament that means a lot to him due to the four years he spent in the country while studying at Mississippi State University. In fact, even because of his opponent, It was almost the end of the season to return to the first Major of the year when he faced Daniil Medvedev, current world number 5. And it was in the nuances between the two tournaments that there was a window of opportunity.
Cycling to finish a marathon that will make history: Nuno Borges saves three match points, beats Mensík and is in the fourth round of the US Open
In the run-up to the match that would mark the Portuguese’s debut at the Arthur Ash Stadium, the largest tennis stadium in the world, which had seen the victory of American Jessica Pegula against Russian Diana Schnaider, who has lived in the US for several years, in the opening round of the match, the Portuguese lost in the third round of doubles with Francisco Cabral against Australians Jordan Thompson and Max Purcell (seventh seeds in this variant) and admitted that the physical aspect also played a role in a match where the national duo started as outsider. “It wasn’t so fresh and that may have weighed on me at times. I had more difficulty responding, maybe I wasn’t as agile as I would have liked to be and as feline as in previous games but it’s normal, I didn’t have that much time to recover from the match. Sometimes, it’s these little details that make all the difference in a doubles match”, admitted the Maiato at the end of the match.
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Wherever he read advantages, he always saw an advantage: Nuno Borges beats Kokkinakis and advances to the third round of the US Open for the first time
It was clear why. The first round against Federico Coria was a great boost of confidence at all levels, not only because of the most impressive victory in his career in Grand Slams (6-1, 6-4 and 6-2) but also because of the way he managed to impose his game against an Argentine who had no way of countering the opposing power. In the second match, against a highly motivated Thanasis Kokkinakis who had just beaten Stefanos Tsitsipas, he was clinical in the key points, pulling almost all the advantages to his side and managed to close out the victory again by 6-4, 7-5 and 7-5. In a historic third round that he had never reached before, he achieved another victory against the Czech Jakub Mensík with 6-7 (5), 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (8) and 6-0 but did not prevent enormous wear and tear.
A story written in less than two hours: Nuno Borges in the second round of the US Open with his most impressive victory in a Grand Slam
Mensík’s game, switching on and off the match in a test of the opponents’ resistance, left its mark and not even the fact that he saved three match points recovered from almost four hours of a very intense match. Still, and in a different context from Australia where he had beaten Grigor Dimitrov with a dream game, Nuno Borges reunited with Daniil Medvedev with the very complicated possibility of reaching an unprecedented presence of a Portuguese in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam on a day that was already historic for him and for Portuguese tennis, having benefited from Tomas Machac’s defeat against Jack Draper to officially guarantee that he would enter the top 30 for the first time in his career. ranking world championship, something that only João Sousa had achieved (28th in May 2016). That was guaranteed, the “impossible” came next.
Standing ovation, praise from Medvedev and Nuno Borges’ records as he bids farewell to the Happy Slam: “I’m in the best phase of my career”
The match could hardly have started worse for Nuno Borges, who had the opening service game chosen by Daniil Medvedev. After a first lost point, the Portuguese double faulted twice in a row, suffering the break blank, allowed the 2-0 with two points on the Russian’s service and suffered a new break then went on to make it 3-0 in a game where it was even starting to show signs of a slight improvement. Between getting used to a court very specific and fitting into the “Octopus’s” strengths, the maiato still managed to go to the advantage for the first time in the fourth game of the set initial but could do nothing when Medvedev brought out his best serves, becoming almost hostage to what his opponent showed and from then on trying to get around the obstacles. Not even the service worked as a “stabilization board” at the meeting, with the opening set closing with a 6-0 bicycle kick with a lot to forget and little to remember.
Just opening the second one setand after 28 minutes, Nuno Borges managed to win his first game on serve, but in his rush to do more and better, he ended up being an opponent as great or even greater than Medvedev already was. The Portuguese had realized the best positioning in response to the Russian’s second serves, and was creating other types of problems for the Russian but was unable to avoid unforced errors, double faults and balls that went too short, passing the advantage to the other side. With that, and without having to force too much rhythm to the point of entering those spirals in which his personality betrays him, Medvedev once again made a break for 2-1, held his service game and went to find a meeting with 0-40 for a new break of service that definitively decided the second set, which would close shortly after with 6-1 after the Portuguese had benefited from two points of break not converted at the then sixth meeting of the set.
It was all becoming too easy for Medvedev, but Nuno Borges didn’t give up, starting to let out more and more of his frustration and seeing this as a way to “call” the crowd to his side and rediscover a quality of play that had not yet appeared. The way he celebrated the 1-1 on his serve, after several advantage points, was the cry of Ipiranga, confirmed later with a first break at the service of the Russian who put him at an advantage before another “unusual” stop in the advantages of the fourth game due to… a fire alarm in the control room. It’s not that the irregularity had disappeared 100% but the Portuguese was at his best before the stop, coming in cold to suffer the break to 2-2. For the first time, the set had “stabilized”, with Nuno Borges moving up as the first serve percentage increased but the eighth game went from 30-0 to break ended up being fateful for the 6-3 defeat in the last set.
