Francesco Passaro vs Nuno Borges Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Italian Open

Prediction published on 11/05/2024, 05:01  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 11/05/2024 at 06:01 in ATP Italian Open Predictions

Qualifier Francisco Passaro faces unseeded Nuno Borges for a place in the Italian Open last 16. Whoever wins this match will take on either third seed Alexander Zverev or unseeded Luciano Darderi for a place in the quarter-finals. It's been a big week for Francisco Passaro who was down at 240th in the last ranking list. His run to the third round of this Masters tournament has taken him up to 184th and he's 162nd in the ATP Live Race. Passaro had to win two qualifying matches to reach the main draw. Wins came against Aleksandar Kovacevic and Duje Ajdukovic, both of whom were seeded. It took three sets for him to beat Ajdukovic and each set went to a tie-break. Two more were played as he beat Arthur Rinderknech in round one, his first main draw win of the year on the ATP Tour. Round two saw him beat the 23rd seed Tallon Griekspoor after dropping the first set with just the one tie-break played. That's six so far in Rome and a bet on another here could well be successful.

Nuno Borges is up to 50th in the live rankings and is 25th in the ATP Race. It's been a good year for Borges with two ATP Tour quarter-finals, one on clay in Estoril. He also had a run to the last 16 of the Australian Open and got to the last eight of a Challenger Tour event in Cagliari last week. A win over Passaro could see him set a new career-high of 45th. To reach this third round, he's had wins over Pedro Martinez but had to come from behind to win that match and there were two tie-breaks played. Round two saw him cause an upset as he beat 15th seeded Alexander Bublik in straight sets, both won 6-4. We tip him to beat Passaro to reach the last 16.