Borges Makes History as First Lucky Loser Into Paris Quarter-Finals

Nuno Borges was not even supposed to be in the Rolex Paris Masters draw. On Thursday, the Portuguese lucky loser made history anyway, thrashing Peru's Ignacio Buse 6-0, 6-2 to become the first player with that status ever to reach the quarter-finals of the Paris Masters 1000. Borges had lost in qualifying to Alex Molcan, but a place opened up in the main draw — and he has taken full advantage. He won the first eight games of the match against Buse, who looked to be struggling physically, and wrapped up the win in just one hour and 11 minutes. Borges never faced a break point, converted five of his 11 chances, and hit 19 winners to 13 unforced errors. It was a sweet reversal of their only previous meeting, which Buse won in the Davis Cup in September 2025. The 29-year-old had lost all six of his previous last-16 matches at Masters 1000 level, but this time he broke through in style, reaching the 13th quarter-final of his ATP career — and by far the biggest. Borges also became only the third Portuguese man to reach a Masters 1000 quarter-final, following Frederico Gil at Monte-Carlo in 2011 and Joao Sousa in Madrid in 2016. From qualifying defeat to the last eight: it is the story of the tournament in Paris.