Nuno Borges of Portugal dropped the first eight games of his match with French qualifier Lucas Pouille, but he was still able to come away with a 0-6, 7-6 (6), 6-3 victory on Monday in the first round of the Millennium Estoril Open in Estoril, Portugal.
Playing in front of a friendly crowd, Borges got off to a nightmarish start, getting blanked in the first set before falling into a 2-0 hole in the second. He then rattled off four straight wins to get back on track and later forced a third set by prevailing in the tiebreaker.
Borges ended up taking the final four games of the final set to complete the comeback.
In other action, Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut pulled off a 6-1, 7-5 upset of sixth-seeded Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic, while Austrian Dominic Thiem also moved on by downing Maximilian Marterer of Germany 6-1, 6-7 (3), 6-4.
Grand Prix Hassan II
No. 7 seed Mariano Navone of Argentina took just 76 minutes to defeat Tunisian Aziz Dougaz 6-3, 6-2 in first-round action at Marrakech, Morocco.
Dougaz had a pair of aces while Navone had none, but the latter had little trouble punching his ticket to the second round. The only deficit Navone faced was at 1-0 in the second set.
Both of Monday’s other victors won in straight sets, with Russia’s Pavel Kotov eliminating Moroccan wild card Elliot Benchetrit and Jaume Munar of Spain cruising past Frenchman Luca Van Assche.
Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship
The United States’ Brandon Nakashima made it out of the first round with a 6-1, 6-4 drubbing of Duje Ajdukovic of Croatia in Houston.
Nakashima saved 2 of 2 break points and converted 3 of 5 in the win. His countryman wasn’t as lucky, though, as qualifier Patrick Kypson stumbled to a 7-6 (5), 6-3 loss to Belgium’s Zizou Bergs.
Two more matches were scheduled for later Monday. Fifth-seeded American Christopher Eubanks was set to face Rinky Hijikata of Australia, and J.J. Wolf of the U.S. was preparing for a meeting with Swiss qualifier Alexander Ritschard.
–Field Level Media