The Portuguese Nuno Borges, the national number one and 51st in the world tennis ranking, qualified this Friday, for the first time, for the semi-finals of an ATP tournament in Bastad, Sweden, where he defeated the Kazakh Timofey Skatov in the quarter-finals.
At 27 years old, the tennis player from Maia will compete for the first time for a spot in the final of a circuit tournament against the Argentine Thiago Agustin Tirante, ranked 121st, who defeated the Spaniard Roberto Carballes Baena, 54th in the world, by 6-3, 2-6, and 7-5, in 2 hours and 16 minutes.
To reach this stage and face Tirante, who defeated him in their only encounter in 2023, Borges, the seventh seed, won on the clay court of the Swedish tournament against Timofey Skatov, ranked 223rd in the world, with scores of 6-4 and 6-3, in 1 hour and 30 minutes.
This was the third appearance of the Portuguese in the quarter-finals – all in 2024 – after losses to the Norwegian Casper Ruud in Los Cabos and to the Chilean Cristian Garin in the Estoril Open, against Skatov, a newcomer to this stage, with whom he shared their previous meeting history, with one victory each.
In the round of 16, Nuno Borges defeated fellow Portuguese and training partner Henrique Rocha, ranked 182 in the world.