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Fixture: (5) Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Nuno Borges.
Date: May 13, 2023.
Tournament: Italian Open 2023.
Round: Second Round (Round of 64).
Venue: Foro Italico, Rome, Italy.
Category: Masters 1000.
Surface: Outdoor clay.
Prize money: €7,705,780.
Live telecast: USA - Tennis Channel | UK - Amazon Prime Video | India - Sony Liv.
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Nuno Borges preview
Following a first-round bye, fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas will take on World No. 88 Nuno Borges in the second round of the 2023 Italian Open on Saturday.
Tsitsipas' title defense at the Monte-Carlo Masters came to an end in the quarterfinals as he suffered a straight-sets loss against Taylor Fritz. He performed better at the Barcelona Open, knocking out players like Denis Shapovalov and Alex de Minaur en route to the final.
Tsitsipas faced Carlos Alcaraz in the title round, but the Spaniard came out on top yet again. He defeated Dominic Thiem, Sebastian Baez, and Bernabe Zapata Miralles to reach the last eight at the Madrid Open. Up against Jan-Lennard Struff in the quarterfinals, the Greek lost to him in three sets.
Borges commenced his challenge in Rome against Dusan Lajovic. The former started off strong by securing a break of serve at the start of the first set but couldn't hold on to the lead he acquired.
Borges then went on a three-game run to go 5-3 up and closed out the set soon after that. The second set was quite lop-sided, with the 26-year-old dropping just one game in it to win the match 6-4, 6-1.
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Nuno Borges head-to-head
This will be the first meeting between them, so the head-to-head stands at 0-0 for now.
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Nuno Borges odds
(Odds are sourced from BetMGM)
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Nuno Borges prediction
Borges played a pretty good match to defeat Lajovic in the previous round. He won 66% of his first serve points, while hitting 17 winners and committing 13 unforced errors. It marked just his fourth win at the ATP level this season.
Tsitsipas has enjoyed some decent success during the clay swing so far, but he has it in him to do better. He was the runner-up in Rome last year, going down to Novak Djokovic in the final. The Greek will be aiming to at least match his previous result.
Borges is yet to win a match against a top 10 player, indicating that he's yet to unlock that extra gear needed to go toe-to-toe with quality opposition. The Portuguese has a few tools in his arsenal to bother his opponents.
However, everything that Borges is capable of, Tsitsipas does better. Expect the World No. 5 to make a winning start to his campaign in Rome.
Pick: Stefanos Tsitsipas to win in straight sets.
