“I can't believe it yet.” Nuno Borges reaches the round of 16 at the Australian Open | Tennis

Portuguese Nuno Borges, 69th place classification Today, Saturday, the World Tennis Championship qualified for the first time to the round of 16 The Grand Slam, by defeating Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (13th place) in the third round of the Australian Open.

The 26-year-old tennis player from Maya overcame Dimitrov's favoritism to reach the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time – and had never gone past the second – 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 6-2, 7- 6 (8-6), in a match that lasted three hours and five minutes.

Grigor Dimitrov is the second seed defeated by Nuno Borges, who only lost to the first hiring From this meeting. Speaking to reporters after the match, the tennis player admitted that he felt nervous during the match and expressed his disbelief at the result.

“I'm still digesting the win. I'm really happy, I had a great performance. To be honest, I wasn't ready to win, but it was with the fight mentality set by the group and I started to believe that I could have won,” he added. “Then the tie-break was crazy, and without a doubt I was “Very nervous – I don't remember being that nervous, and I've never played in front of that many people.”

Nuno Borges says he began to see victory at the end of the third period hiringsecond Newspaper the game.: “I thought, ‘Okay, I can win this.’ But he did hiring At a time, one game at a time… I keep testing my limits, my opponent's limits. “In tennis anything can happen and today was a great example of that.”

After thanking the fans in the stands and the team he works with, the athlete said that he did not have time to celebrate: “Tennis gives confidence with victories. But we do not have much time to celebrate. We have to continue and prepare.” In the next match we have to test our limits and prove our quality court. “It doesn't take me days to digest defeats, but I still find it difficult to deal with them.”

In the fourth round, Nuno Borges will compete for a place in the quarter-finals with the winner from Russian Daniil Medvedev, third in the world tennis rankings, who also beat Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, ranked 30th in the world, next Saturday.

In the third round of the first Grand Slam of the season, Medvedev, winner of the US Open in 2021, defeated Auger-Aliassime in three games. groupsWith a score of 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 in two hours and nine minutes.