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Borges had a match point at 5-3 in the third
set before dropping his serve and eventually ending up in a
decisive tiebreaker on the clay. Martinez jumped in front 5-2 in
the tiebreaker before Borges won the next four points to earn
another match point.
Martinez again recovered and had match points at 7-6 on Borges'
serve and 8-7 on his own serve, but Borges extended the contest
each time. Borges finally put the match away on Martinez's
serve.
Borges advances to oppose 15th-seeded Alexander Bublik of
Kazakhstan in the second round.
Other first-round winners on Wednesday were Italy's Flavio
Cobolli and Luciano Darderi, Australia's Aleksandar Vukic,
Germany's Yannick Hanfmann, Russia's Pavel Kotov, Japan's
Yoshihito Nishioka, Kazakhstan's Alexander Shevchenko, China's
Zhizhen Zhang, French qualifier Terence Atmane and Brazilian
qualifier Thiago Monteiro.
The event's 32 seeded players -- including No. 1 Novak Djokovic
of Serbia, No. 2 Daniil Medvedev of Russia, No. 3 Alexander
Zverev of Germany and No. 4 Andrey Rublev of Russia -- received
first-round byes.
Unseeded Rafael Nadal, a 10-time Rome champion, opens against
Belgian qualifier Zizou Bergs on Thursday. Nadal began his
injury-delayed season last month with two tournaments in his
native Spain, losing in the second round at Barcelona and the
fourth round at Madrid.
Nadal said of his form, "It's something that is not every day
the same. It is not a line like this (going up), it's a little
bit like this (up and down). Even after Barcelona, I had some
tough moments in Madrid. Even here the first day. But in a
general perspective, the line is going up, without a doubt.
"I am happy to be today where I am because one month ago for me
(it) was almost impossible to think that I would be able to play
in Barcelona then in Madrid and now being here in Rome. Things
are happening."
Djokovic, a six-time champion in Rome, will open against either
France's Corentin Moutet or Russia's Roman Safiullin.
--Field Level Media [© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
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