Incredible! Legitimate! Borges Stuns Etcheverry with Underarm Serve on Match Point

When Nuno Borges was physically struggling during the penultimate changeover of his second-round match in Barcelona with Tomas Martin Etcheverry, he did not elect to take a medical timeout. Was it his knee, his hip, his wrist, or simply cramping? For sure, noted commentator Nick Lester, he absolutely DID NOT want to spend another hour on court against Etcheverry. The hard-charging 2026 Rio Open champion and the tour’s current leader in clay-court match wins this year, had rallied from a break down moments ago to bring the set on serve. 

Instead, Borges, one of just five men in history to defeat Rafael Nadal in a clay-court final and the second Portuguese man to crack the Top 50 in Open Era history, soldiered on. 

Call those first two paragraphs a contextual preview of what would happen next. 

Borges’ 6-3, 7-6(4) victory over Etcheverry will be forever remembered for one shot and one shot only: his stunning underarm serve on his second match point, one that slipped under Etcheverry’s racquet for an ace. 

Voila! Was it brilliance or BS? There were a few boos and whistles coming from the crowd, but not enough to dampen the spirits of physically suffering Borges, who moved through to his first career ATP quarterfinal in two hours and one minute. 

There was an inkling that Borges was desperate on his first match point, when he went for a serve-and-volley attempt and Etcheverry rifled a backhand passing shot winner to save it. On the next point Borges, knowing he needed to end the match immediately or suffer a cruel fate, took it a level further and slid a perfect underarm serve that completely caught Etcheverry off guard. 

“That is incredible,” said commentator Nick Lester. “The crowd may not like it, but he’s come up with a legitimate play to get it done. More importantly, he’s into a 500 quarterfinal for the first time in his career.” 

“Just when you think you’ve seen everything, that happens,” said Barry Cowan, commentating the match along with Lester. “And you know what? He’s well within his rights.” 

Opinions always tend to differ on underarm serves, with some calling them cowardly and others praising the rarity as an intelligent antidote to a returner who camps out miles behind the baseline to neutralize a server’s power. One thing nobody will deny? The serve was well within the rules. 

Borges gets his sixth-best career clay-court win by ranking and moves on to face Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic, who defeated third-seeded Alex de Minaur 6-3, 6-4.