Portugal has one man left at the US Open. He plays the defending champion next
Nuno Borges went out in the first round to Learner Tien, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2, in 99 minutes. That leaves Jaime Faria alone in the singles draw, with Carlos Alcaraz waiting in round two.
Ninety-nine minutes, and barely an argument in any of them. Nuno Borges, the world number 41 and Portugal’s leading man, lost his opening match at the US Open to American Learner Tien 6-4, 6-1, 6-2. In his last nine Grand Slam appearances he had never gone out in the first round before.
The match turned on one game. Borges was broken serving to stay in the opening set, and everything he normally leans on went with it: 53% of first serves in, and a forehand that never once bent the court his way. Tien, inside the top 20 when he arrived in New York, simply kept the ball in play.
There is a harder line in the numbers. The two had already met in Paris and in Melbourne, and the American has still not dropped a set to him: their head-to-head now reads 8-0 in sets.
What form was Nuno Borges in before the US Open?
That is what stings. Borges came to Flushing Meadows off six wins across Montreal and Cincinnati and back-to-back last-16 runs, the sort of run that usually buys a player a week at a major. None of it showed up on Court 17. The 29-year-old from Maia, who in July opened Portugal’s Wimbledon on the grass, leaves New York with ranking points to defend and nothing to point at.
Faria is alone, and he drew the worst possible name
Portugal’s singles hopes now sit entirely with Jaime Faria. The 23-year-old from Lisbon won his first main-draw match at the US Open on Sunday, and the reward is Carlos Alcaraz in the second round: the defending champion, back on tour after 143 days out with a wrist injury.
A rusty Alcaraz is the only thing running in Faria’s favour, and it is a thin thing to hold. Four and a half months out takes the timing off anyone. It does not take away what he already knows how to do on these courts.
By Vasco Almada
Image: Beyond My Ken / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
