State’s Top-Seeded Borges Wins Twice To Move Into ITA All-American Semifinals

Saturday, October 6

Tulsa, Okla.

All Day

Mississippi State

ITA All-American Championships

MSU's Nuno Borges won a pair of straight-set decisions on Saturday en route to advancing to the semifinals of the 2018 ITA All-American Championships.

State’s Top-Seeded Borges Wins Twice To Move Into ITA All-American Semifinals

October 06, 2018 | Men's Tennis

2018 ITA All-American Championships HQ

by Caleb Garner, Graduate Assistant/Communications

TULSA, Okla. – An impressive run continued for Mississippi State's Nuno Borges on Saturday, as the two-time All-American and No. 1 seed in this weekend's tournament notched TULSA, Okla. – An impressive run continued for Mississippi State's Nuno Borges on Saturday, as the two-time All-American and No. 1 seed in this weekend's tournament notched a pair of straight-set wins to reach the semifinals of the 2018 ITA All-American Championships.

To start the day, Borges downed 39th-ranked Majed Kilani of host Tulsa in a Round of 16 bout. The first set was tight, with Borges coming out on top in tiebreak fashion 7-6(5), winning the last three points of the breaker to gain the early advantage. After that, Borges took total command, blanking the Golden Hurricane standout in the second set for a 7-6(5), 6-0 victory.

In his second match Saturday, the Bulldog senior faced another strong opponent in Oregon's sixth-seeded and eighth-ranked Thomas Laurent. After Borges took a 4-1 lead in the first, Laurent battled back to go up 5-4. The Porto, Portugal, product did not back down, however, winning the final three games to take the set by a 7-5 mark. The second set was similar to that of the day's first match, with Borges dominating, 6-1.

The defending SEC Player of the Year will now face 50th-ranked Alex Brown of Illinois in Sunday's semifinals at 10 a.m. CT. Borges' triumph over Kilani automatically qualifies him for the 2018 ITA National Fall Championships in Surprise, Ariz., in November. In the inaugural event last fall, Borges mounted an incredible run, taking all six matches in straight sets en route to claiming the singles crown.

State's seventh-ranked doubles tandem of Niclas Braun and Giovanni Oradini took the court under the lights Saturday night in consolation action, moving past Old Dominion's Aziz Kijametovic Francois Musitelli in a tight battle. In the first-set tiebreaker, Braun and Oradini gained a quick 4-2 lead before ODU went ahead 6-4. The State duo then fended off a pair of set points to knot things up at 6-all. The Monarchs then went on to win the final two points to take the tiebreaker by an 8-6 mark to take the first set.

Braun and Oradini then took a 6-3 decision in the second frame to force a 10-point match tiebreaker. To open the breaker, Braun and Oradini earned a quick 4-0 lead before ODU got on the board. State then went up 7-1 followed by a 3-0 run by the Monarch duo to make it 7-4. The Bulldogs went on to take the final three points to close out the match 6-7(6), 6-3, 1-0(4).

In Sunday's semifinal match, Braun and Oradini will take on San Diego's 10th-ranked Nico Borter and Guilherme Osorio, who advanced with a straight-set victory on Saturday. Match time is set to begin not before 2 p.m.

At the same time, State's top-ranked duo of Borges and Strahinja Rakic notched a solid victory against No. 25 Alex Brown and Caleb Chakravarthi of Illinois (Brown also who Borges will meet in the singles semifinals Sunday). The Bulldog tandem took the first set 6-4 before Illinois knotted things up at a set apiece with a 6-3 decision in set 2 to force a 10-point match tiebreaker.

In the super tiebreaker, the Illini pair built a quick 3-0 lead before Borges and Rakic won the next seven points. Brown and Chakravarthi countered by winning four of the next five points to tie it up at 8-all. MSU held to go up 9-8, then broke to finally take the match 6-4, 3-6, 1-0(8).

Borges and Rakic will next face Texas Tech's Bjorn Thomson and Parker Wynn in the doubles consolation semifinals on Sunday with start time not before 2 p.m.

The finalists of each consolation draw advance to the 2018 ITA National Fall Championships.

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

MSU at the 2018 ITA All-American Championships
October 6, 2018 – Tulsa, Oklahoma (Michael D. Case Tennis Center)

Singles Main Draw
Round of 16 – #2 Nuno Borges [1] (MSU) def. #39 Majed Kilani (Tulsa) 7-6(5), 6-0
Quarterfinals – #2 Borges [1] (MSU) def. #8 Thomas Laurent [6] (Oregon) 7-5, 6-1

Doubles Consolation Draw
Quarterfinals –#1 Nuno Borges/Strahinja Rakic [1] (MSU) def. #25 Alex Brown/Caleb Chakravarthi 6-4, 3-6, 1-0(8); #7 Niclas Braun/Giovanni Oradini [5] (MSU) def. Aziz Kijametovic/Francois Musitelli (Old Dominion) 6-7(4), 6-3, 1-0(4)

ITA National rankings precede player names; tournament seeding in brackets.