PHOENIX/STANBERG, March 18, 2024
Nuno Borges from Portugal successfully defended his Arizona Tennis Classic title. The No. 5 seed of the ATP Challenger Tour 175 hard-court event in Phoenix when beat Italian wild card entry Matteo Berrettini 7-5, 7-6(4) in Sunday’s singles final.
Borges won 78 per cent of his first-service points and eight points more than the former World No. 6 to secure victory in one hour and 57 minutes.
Top tier celebration 🎉 #ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/KCdtYcaj5j
— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) March 18, 2024
“I still can’t believe it. An amazing week. I started the week with not the greatest practises, I wasn’t feeling my best. Then I started getting confidence throughout the tournament with the matches and really just impressed myself with how I dealt with all the adversity. One night finishing past midnight,” said Borges.
“Just stayed really hungry, motivated and pushed myself. I stayed really positive all throughout and all the hard work I put in this week… Just surprised and happy I’m able to celebrate another title here. [I’m on] cloud nine.”
By winning his sixth ATP Challenger Tour career title, his first of the season, the 27-year-old Maia native earned €30,770 in prize money as well as 175 ATP Ranking points.
Frenchmen prevail in doubles
In other action, Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul captured the doubles title. The top seeds from France defeated Australian Rinky Hijikata and Henry Patten of Great Britain 6-3, 6-2 in 64 minutes.
Doumbia and Reboul claimed their second team title in 2024 following their triumph on home soil in Montpellier. They split $12,830 in prize money and collected 175 ATP Doubles Ranking points.
