US Open: Borges saves three match points to reach last 16

Portuguese Nuno Borges moved into the last 16 of the US Open by winning against Czech Jakub Mensik 6-7 (5), 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-0 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York on Saturday.

Borges and Mensik battled for nearly four hours in the five-set thriller that saw two tiebreakers and a bagel.

Borges remained chasing for the majority of the match as Mensik secured the first and third sets. Moreover, the Portuguese stared at defeat when his opponent earned three match points in the fourth set tiebreaker. He, however, managed to save them all and secure the set to draw level.

The 27-year-old came out all guns blazing in the decider, breaking Mensik thrice to seal it with a bagel – a rather uncharacteristic finish to the tightly fought encounter.

Borges, ranked No 34, now awaits the winner of the match between Italian Flavio Cobolli, the No 31 seed, and Russian Daniil Medvedev, the No 5 seed, in what would be his career’s first fourth round outing at the US Open.

The Portuguese beat Argentinian Federico Coria (6-2, 6-4, 6-1) and Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis (6-4, 7-5, 7-5) ahead of his victory.

In the previous rounds of the US Open, Mensik, ranked No 65, defeated Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, the No 19 seed (6-2, 6-4, 6-2) and came back against Australian wildcard Tristan Schoolkate (6-7 (4), 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3)).

New York (Grand Slam), other third-round results (USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, hard, USD 75.000.000, most recent results first):

• Flavio Cobolli vs. Daniil Medvedev
• Alex De Minaur vs. Daniel Evans: saturday
• Jordan Thompson beat Matteo Arnaldi (30): 7-5, 6-2, 7-6 (5)
• Tommy Paul (14) beat Gabriel Diallo (Q): 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (3)
• Jannik Sinner (1) beat Christopher O’Connell: 6-1, 6-4, 6-2
• Jack Draper (25) beat Botic van de Zandschulp: 6-3, 6-4, 6-2
• Tomas Machac beat David Goffin: 6-3, 6-1, 6-2
• Alexander Zverev (4) beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry: 5-7, 7-5, 6-1, 6-3
• Alexei Popyrin (28) beat Novak Djokovic (2): 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4
• Brandon Nakashima beat Lorenzo Musetti (18): 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4)
• Casper Ruud (8) beat Juncheng Shang: 6-7 (1), 3-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-1
• Taylor Fritz (12) beat Francisco Comesana: 6-3, 6-4, 6-2
• Grigor Dimitrov (9) beat Tallon Griekspoor: 6-3, 6-3, 6-1
• Andrey Rublev (6) beat Jiri Lehecka (32): 6-3, 7-5, 6-4
• Frances Tiafoe (20) beat Ben Shelton (13): 4-6, 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3

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