Strong like Borges

The Portuguese player is performing at an excellent level and is getting through tough matchups for him this week.

Another good win for Borges against Darderi, the Italian had a hamstring scare and couldn’t hang on at the end, but the rest of the match was high level. Borges again stressed that the conditions are tough for returners because it’s all so fast. Poor guy has just gone through Struff, Darderi, and now he has to deal with Quinn tomorrow. And I see the American as the perfect mix to really give him a hard time…

Struff is too erratic and one-dimensional in his game, and an out-of-sorts Darderi is a bit passive at times. Quinn is somewhere in between the two: he has the net game to follow up his attacks but doesn’t rush things either. His match against Kopriva was excellent again despite a little dip in the first set; without that small slump he would have wrapped it up in straight sets. He’s gaining momentum and becoming dangerous at the business end of the tournament now that he’s gaining confidence in his game. We obviously remember his title in Phoenix and then the run he put together afterwards, riding that positive wave.

This will be the first meeting between these two players. I give the match-up advantage to Quinn without too much hesitation, but I’m not writing off Borges, who’s managing to beat players that cause him problems at the moment. Promises to be a high-level match!