Entering the third round of the 2026 Cincinnati Open, Nuno Borges had never defeated Andrey Rublev. In fact, in their five meetings, Borges had taken just one set from the Russian. Things would go differently this time, however.
Rublev couldn't even get mad at himself, either. He wasn't doing anything horribly wrong; he was just outplayed from the opening set by the Portuguese player. Borges was so dominant that he jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first set in just a matter of minutes. He was serving precisely and pressuring Rublev on his serve.
The Russian is known for his bombastic personality on the court while being quite nice off it. For most of the match against Borges, he was rightfully kind to himself. Had he been making a lot of unforced errors, he might have been able to blame himself. The credit for how the match was unfolding should have gone to Borges, though.
Nuno Borges defeats Andrey Rublev in the third round of the Cincinnati Open
Rublev didn't give up, though. He fought to 3-5 and got close to breaking Broges to get to 4-5 and on serve, but couldn't push through.
In the second set, Rublev suffered another cruel fate when he was broken fairly straightforwardly, and Borges was serving so well that the outcome seemed sealed at that point. In his career, Borges had only won three matches in a Masters 1000 main draw three times before, including the Canadian Open earlier in August. After his victory against Rublev, Borges has now done it twice in a row.
Throughout the match, Borges was simply playing exceedingly clean tennis. He finished with 17 winners and 19 unforced errors, while Rublev hit 15 and 24, respectively. Not terrible tennis, but not good enough to defeat Borges, who took the final set 6-4.
Next for Nuno Borges, who will move up seven spots in the live ATP rankings to No. 40, while Andrey Rublev will fall six spots to No. 24, will be the winner of the match between Brandon Nakashima and Daniil Medvedev in the fourth round of the Cincinnati Open.
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