SIC Interview
Alcaraz against Nuno Borges, the Spanish number 1 against the Portuguese number 1. The Iberian duel at the Australian Open did not smile on the Portuguese tennis player, who, in the aftermath of the match, praised his young opponent and envisioned the future of the sport in Portugal.
Nuno Borges entered the Rod Laver Arena, in Melbourne, with the ambition of at least repeating last season’s historic feat, when he became the first Portuguese to appear in the fourth round of the . Despite the “incredible intensity” of his opponent, Carlos Alcaraz, the Maia-born athlete still managed to win a set, but it was insufficient to progress to the first Grand Slam of the season.
Carlos Alcaraz, just 21 years old, but already one of the most feared names in world tennis, this Friday, in four sets, 6-2, 6-4, 6-7 (3-7) and 6-2.
Playing best of five is always “exciting”, words from the 27-year-old tennis player, who, in an interview with SIC, confesses that playing against Carlos Alcaraz, current number 3 in the on the biggest court in Melbourne Park was “extra exhausting”.
He leaves Australia “sad”, he confides, not only because of the defeat, but also because the first Grand Slam of the season is one of the most special for the Brazilian athlete.
Despite not advancing in the tournament, he believes the experience was positive:
“I’m happy with the week, with the performance I had. I think, deep down, I accomplished my goal and I’m happy, not only with this tournament, but with the way I’ve been playing.”
“Carlos plays with incredible intensity”
The truth is that on the other side of the court was one of the best tennis players today, which, at first, was not a sentence for the Portuguese, but the Spaniard’s aggressive style made his life difficult:
“Carlos plays with incredible intensity and I feel that, at the first opportunity he gets, he always throws a right hand with a lot, a lot of force and it immediately causes a lot of discomfort in my game.”
Maiato was unable to overcome his opponent’s “pressure”, despite recognizing that, at certain moments in the match, competed “as equals for equals.”
“In general he was superior”, he admits.
But how did the 27-year-old athlete approach the match that could earn him a ticket to the fourth round of the Australian Open?
Nuno Borges explains that he tried to focus on “one set at a time”, even after having felt “a surge” with the victory in the third – which could have been the last if he didn’t win:
“I knew I was going to have to fight again for the fourth set, or any set, the same way I started the others, but it gave me a little more encouragement. Did I believe I was going to win? a little more and I knew I still had a long way to go.”
Portugal and Spain: so close, but with such different sporting cultures
This morning’s game brought the greatest tennis exponents from their respective countries face to face, two nations so close, but with a very different “sports culture”, remembers the tennis player.
Despite recognizing that both nations “are always very focused on football”, he points out that, in the neighboring country, “tennis already has a very long history”.
“In Portugal we don’t have anything like that. Sometimes we walk here on the circuit and notice that there are even former players who are still around and who we say are ‘more than their mothers’ because, really, it seems like a top player 200 Spanish people are found in a tournament and it is considered normal and banal, while in Portugal we are very few”, he notes.
What about the future of “your” sport in Portugal?
Although tennis still has a long way to go towards affirmation, the 33rd in the world ranking believes that the scenario “has been improving”. Proof of this is the increasingly “full” calendar of competitions on national soil, a reality that, according to the tennis player, can significantly contribute to changing the tennis paradigm here.
Nuno Borges already knows what it’s like to be in the top 30
Still, 30th place in the global hierarchy was not enough to reach the highest ranking achieved by a Portuguese tennis player – 28th place by João Sousa, in 2016 -, but at 27 years old and still having a lot to give to the sport, this is a reality that does not seem at all unattainable.
Even though the now retired Spanish tennis player was, at the time, in a downward phase of his career, the feat is still equally remarkable because this was the first ATP trophy of Nuno Borges’ career.
