Portuguese tennis player Nuno Borges, number one in the national team, renewed his title this Sunday in the Challenger tournament in Phoenix, USA, defeating Italian Matteo Berrettini in straight sets.
The fifth seed in the tournament, which he won in 2023, the Portuguese, ranked 60th in the world, defeated the former world number six, now ranked 154th, 7-5 to 7-6 (7-4) in an hour and 58 minutes. .
Borges only dropped one set during the week, in the semi-final against France’s Luca van Assche, a match in which he had some physical problems.
In addition, the Portuguese number one beat withdrawn Frenchmen Alexandre Muller and Benoit Paire, as well as Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis.
In the final, Borges even started the match poorly, seeing his serve broken in the first game, but managed to break twice and win a partial.
In the second set, the Portuguese came out on serve to win the match 5-4 on the scoreboard but allowed the Italian, who returned to competition after injury at the 2023 US Open, to break.
Before the decisive tiebreaker, Nuno Borges still had two match points on Berrettini’s serve, confirming his triumph on the third match point.
After the meeting, the Italian praised Nuno Borges, believing that “he has a great future ahead of him.”
It was Maiato’s sixth challenger tournament win, in his first final of 2024, in a year in which he became the first Portuguese man to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament at the Australian Open before reaching the top 50 the best in the world.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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