An absolute banger to start things off

It's the kind of match that could go to 5 sets and last over 4 hours, with a really awesome level of play.

On paper, I thought it was a good match-up for Borges to play against a Tien who constructs his points well and gives his opponents a bit of time, or at least isn’t a big aggressive server who robs Borges of time. Normally, the Portuguese player is comfortable in this kind of match-up, but we saw in their two previous meetings that he really didn’t like playing against Tien for several reasons. First, because Tien absorbs and redirects Borges’ aggression perfectly, but also because he forces him to play from positions the Portuguese doesn’t like. He varies height, angles, and pace and never gives the same ball twice. He’s also extremely comfortable redirecting down the line and breaking the diagonals a bit. Both times they played, I saw a very comfortable and very inspired Tien who seemed to love Borges’ rhythm and game. Instinctively, I’d still side with Tien because I find the match-up favorable for him.

The arguments in favor of Borges are that he is a Grand Slam player and that he manages to find his best tennis in the big tournaments. I can also give him credit for a good preparation with some strong tournaments recently. As I said, I don’t think the match-up is disastrous either, and maybe this is a bit of an exception that proves the rule, but I still need convincing. He’s built for this kind of event. Mentally, he’ll fight to the very end, and physically, he’s quite reliable. Whereas Tien still has big dips in intensity in his matches and might still have a few issues with his shoulder.

On one hand, I can see Borges managing to make Tien crack and taking advantage of his lapses to win a set, or even more, but I’m quite cooled off by their two previous meetings that I watched. Time to make a call.