Borges’ Run At USTA Harlingen Futures Ends In Quarterfinals

Friday, October 19

Harlingen, Texas

All Day

Mississippi State

USTA Futures

State's Nuno Borges finished another solid tournament run on Friday, finishing in the quarterfinals of the USTA Harlingen, Texas Futures.

Borges’ Run At USTA Harlingen Futures Ends In Quarterfinals

October 19, 2018 | Men's Tennis

2018 ITA Southern Regional Championships HQ 2018 ITA Southern Regional Championships Singles Main Draw (PDF)Live Video (Courts 1-6)

by Caleb Garner, Graduate Assistant/Communications

HARLINGEN, Texas – Another solid tournament run for Mississippi State's Nuno Borges ended on Friday, with the reigning Southeastern Conference Player of the Year dropping a tight, hard-fought 7-6(3), 7-6(5) decision to Andrew Watson (ATP 837) in the quarterfinals of the 2018 USTA Futures in Harlingen, Texas.

In the first set, both sides excelled on serve en route to a tiebreaker. In the breaker, Watson won six of the first eight points to take a quick 6-2 lead. Facing set point, the third-seeded Borges responded by cutting the Brit's lead to 6-3, but Watson held off the MSU senior to take a 7-3 decision in the tiebreaker to go up a set.

The second frame was a bit different, with Watson going up a break at 2-0 early. Borges recovered nicely, however, breaking back and holding to knot it up at 2-games-all. The two-time All-American won another break point three games later to go up 4-3, subsequently holding to increase his lead to 5-3. Watson then battled back to break Borges at 30-40 to tie up the set again—this time at 5-all. Down 6-5, Borges held strong and forced another tiebreaker.

In the second-set tiebreaker, Borges and Watson matched each other point-for-point until Borges went up 4-3. Watson responded by tying up the breaker, followed by Borges taking a 5-4 lead. The former Memphis standout Watson then went on to win the final three points to take the set and match by a 7-5 mark in the tiebreaker.

By reaching the quarterfinals, Borges earned three valuable ATP points to go toward his ranking, which currently sits at No. 509 in the world.

Next Up For MSU…

A full day of tennis awaits the rest of the Bulldogs in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, at the 2018 ITA Southern Regional Championships Saturday with the start of main draw competition.

The day opens at 9 a.m. CT with doubles action featuring a trio of MSU tandems that all earned first-round byes. Second-seeded and seventh-ranked Niclas Braun and Giovanni Oradini will take on Samford's Jack Lyttle and Rossouw Norval. Florian Broska and Strahinja Rakic, the draw's No. 5 seed, are set to face Diego Chavarria and Lorenzo Rodriguez of Auburn. Rounding out the doubles play for the Maroon and White is Trevor Foshey and Stedman Strickland, who will square off against the Southern Miss pair of Mieszko Kwasnieweski and Jorman Reyes.

Two rounds of doubles will be played Saturday, with the Round of 16 set for a 10 a.m. start.

Singles takes the stage on Saturday afternoon, as the top-seeded and fifth-ranked Oradini takes on Auburn's Brandon Laubser at 1 p.m. At the same time, Broska is slated to face South Alabama's Clement Marzol, who is ranked 122nd nationally, while the 109^th-ranked Braun will square off against Zhe Zhou of host Alabama.

At 2:30 p.m., the 43rd-ranked Rakic, seeded fourth in the tourney, will take the court against South Alabama's Sacha Modica. Foshey takes on Tulane's Tim Ruetzel at the same time in a rematch from State's 4-3 victory against the Green Wave in Feb. 2018, when Foshey clinched the Bulldog victory in New Orleans.

Live video for courts 1-6 on the outdoor courts at the Alabama Tennis Stadium is available here.

For more information on the Mississippi State men's tennis program, follow "HailStateMT" on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

MSU at the 2018 USTA Harlingen Futures
October 19, 2018 – Harlingen, Texas (Harlingen Country Club)

Singles Main Draw
Quarterfinals – Andrew Watson def. Nuno Borges [3] 7-6(3), 7-6(5)

Tournament seeding in brackets.