Rome, Francesco Passaro fights back but marathon win for Nuno Borges

Francesco Passaro greets the Internazionali d'Italia

with honor.

Francesco Passaro sold his skin dearly, struggling for three hours and nine minutes, but in the end è it was Nuno Borges, almost two hundred positions higher in the ATP ranking, who made it to the round of 16 of the Internazionali d'Italia in Rome. The Portuguese finished 4-6, 7-6(8), 7-6(4) a match made very complicated by the Perugia-born 23-year-old’s ability to hold the court.

Passaro, despite a break disadvantage in the early stages of the opening fraction, took the game into his own hands, regaining the upper hand with a five-games-to-two partial that delighted the audience in the stands at the Foro Italico. More linear was the progress of the second set, which went to the tie-break without either contender managing to win a game on their opponent’s serve. Borges came out on top after wasting three set points, thus evening the score.

The third set followed the pattern of the second, also reaching the tie-break: Passaro held out until 4-5, but lost the next two points on his own serve, thus enabling the Portuguese to close out the match and thus qualify for the round of 16.

Applause, however, for the Tricolor representative, who had made it through the qualifiers by beating Kovacevic and Ajdukovic and in the main draw got rid of first Rinderknech and then Griekspoor, showing a game far more deserving of the current number 240 position in the world rankings.