ATP Match of the Year, No. 5: Tommy Paul and Nuno Borges go deep into the night at the US Open

This week, Steve Tignor will reveal his ATP Matches of the Year, and the TENNIS.com editors will reveal our ATP Players of the Year. The WTA editions will begin Monday, December 8.

It was a little after 11:30 P.M. when Tommy Paul double reached match point against Nuno Borges in their second-round match at the US Open.

The fans in Arthur she Stadium stood and raised their Honey Deuces, ready to celebrate an American victory. One more point for Paul and—by the standards of the City That Never Sleeps—an ideal evening session would be completed, comfortably before midnight.

Up to that moment, this contest had offered just the right blend of rapid-fire rallies and competitive tension. Borges, an amiable, clean-hitting native of Portugal, had gone up a break early in the third set, but now he seemed to have come to the end of his line. The script had been followed to a T.

Time after time, Paul looked ready to close out the 41st-ranked Borges. Time after time, his smilingly stubborn opponent reeled him back in.

Still, there was a slight problem with the final scene: Borges was serving. He quickly used two first serves to erase both match points. Two more strong points from Borges followed, and the score was 5-5, back to square one. The fans sat back down.

And they sat. And they cheered. And they groaned. And they screamed. And they sat and cheered and groaned and screamed some more. Over the next two hours, Ashe slowly turned into a house of horrors for Paul. Instead of the roars of thousands, what he heard were eerie, echoing shouts and cries from the rafters. Late in the fourth set, when he was flailing in vain for a solution, Paul’s own coach, Brad Stine, told him to “stop acting like a baby.”

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In fairness, it was probably hard for him to act any other way. Time after time, Paul looked ready to close out the 41st-ranked Borges. Time after time, his smilingly stubborn opponent reeled him back in.

By the fifth set, win or lose, Borges had made a name for himself among U.S. fans, and likely in the locker room. His strokes weren’t flowing or graceful, but he was making ultra-clean contact. Borges’ one title came on clay—he beat an aging Rafael Nadal in the final—but on this night he fed off the quick hard court. He came to net 20 more times than the American, and won nearly 70 percent of those points.

The atmosphere, from an American perspective, was nightmarish. But the level of tennis, and the physicality, stayed high throughout the match’s four hours and 25 minutes. Paul and Borges both appeared ready to cramp at times, but soldiered on. Even at 4-4 in the fifth, Borges had the energy to sprint for a short ball and angle it back, just a few inches from the net, and Paul had the energy to come barreling from out of nowhere to scrape the ball off the court and win the point.

At 1:46 A.M., Paul reached match point again, more than two hours after his last one. Again, Borges was serving, and again he attacked, charging the net and making a strong first volley. Paul did his best to stay alive, and Borges’ second volley clipped the tape and landed near the net. Again, Paul barreled forward and angled the ball back. Borges poked it down the line, and Paul raced back to the baseline, where he let loose with a forehand pass. Finally, Borges didn’t have the answer. His volley popped up and landed on his side of the net. Paul had survived his house of horrors, 7-6 (6), 6-3, 5-7, 5-7, 7-5.

“I’m a little bit tired, I think we all are,” Paul said, as Borges walked off in his socks to a rousing ovation. “Thank you guys so much for staying so late in the night and supporting me.”

After his interview, Paul walked slowly back to his chair. Would he have to hit the traditional three balls into what was left of the crowd? Thankfully, no one seemed to consider it. The last thing Tommy needed at that moment was to take another swing.