ATP Tour

Former champ Borges beats Dimitrov in Bastad: 'It felt like everything would go in'

Nuno Borges earned a statement win on Wednesday at the Nordea Open in Bastad, where he cruised past Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-2 to reach his fourth tour-level quarter-final of the season.

Borges has fond memories in Bastad, having won his only ATP Tour title at the event in 2024, when he defeated Rafael Nadal in the final. The fifth seed was at his intense best against Dimitrov, who advanced to the fourth round at Wimbledon earlier this month.

"It was my first time playing Grigor here on clay, so I kept an open mind to what could happen. I knew it could be a difficult one. I was feeling pretty good and at one point it felt like everything would go in no matter how I hit it... This was really feeling like 2024 and when I wasn't thinking too much, things were flowing," Borges said.

Dimitrov was competing at the ATP 250 clay-court event for the first time since reaching the semi-finals in 2013. The 35-year-old Bulgarian earned his first clay-court win of the year in his opening match against Dalibor Svrcina – highlighted by a moment of amazing sportsmanship by Dimitrov – but was unable to back it up against Borges.

The 29-year-old Portuguese outmanoeuvred Dimitrov in the baseline exchanges and was aggressive on the Bulgarian’s second serve, winning 67 per points to improve to 2-1 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

Chasing his second semi-final of the season, Borges will next play defending champion Luciano Darderi or Daniel Altmaier.

Earlier, Adolfo Daniel Vallejo clawed past Botic van de Zandschulp 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) in two hours and 57 minutes to become the first Paraguayan to reach a tour-level quarter-final since Ramon Delgado in Mumbai in 2006. The 22-year-old, currently No. 65 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, will next meet Stefano Travaglia, who defeated fourth seed Mariano Navone 6-4, 6-2.