MAIA/STARNBERG, December 3, 2022
World No. 93 and hometown hero Nuno Borges leads the semi-finals line-up of the Maia Open. The top seed of the €45,730 ATP Challenger Tour clay-court tournament defeated eighth-seeded Italian Riccardo Bonadio 7-5, 6-4 on Friday.
Borges, who is seeking his third Challenger career crown this week on home soil, struck four aces and won 78 per cent of his first-service points to prevail after one hour and 30 minutes.
Nuno Borges está nas meias-finais do Maia Open depois de vencer o italiano Riccardo Bonadio por 7-5 e 6-4.
Este triunfo garante também matematicamente um lugar no quadro principal do Open da Austrália 👏 pic.twitter.com/fNUEvpZ9V6— Steve Grácio (@stevefgracio) December 2, 2022
“His backhand is very good and often I didn’t know which way it goes. It was a very good win, I had to give everything and play very well to be able to win,” said Borges, who has directly qualified for the main draw of the upcoming Australian Open for the first time.
“To be honest, I didn’t know that this win would guarantee me entry into the main draw of the Australian Open. I went into this tournament knowing that there was a certain round where that would happen, but I wasn’t really aware of it and I tried to distance myself from it a little bit. I wasn’t obsessed with this and I thought that sooner or later it would happen if I did things right.”
The 25-year-old Portuguese will next take on Austrian qualifier Maximilian Neuchrist, who continued his fine run of form this week with a 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-4 victory in two hours and 27 minutes over Briton Jan Choinski.
In the bottom half of the draw, French teenager Luca van Assche advanced to the stage of the last four. The 18-year-old eased past Ivan Gakhov of Russia 6-1, 6-2 in one hour and 17 minutes and will next face No. 5 seed Aleksandar Vukic. The World No. 140 from Australia outlasted Jurij Rodionov of Austria 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in two hours and 11 minutes.
