The Week of Borna Coric

The Western and Southern Open has concluded, and it did not disappoint. The week was full of surprises, upsets, and great tennis. It will be hard to review all that happened during this tournament, but I will do my best to summarize the biggest storylines that started brewing in Cincinnati last week. 

We’ll start in chronological order and begin with the first round match-ups. The 1st round had its fair share of interesting matches that started the tournament off with a bang. Notable matches include a 3 set battle between Sinner and the qualifier Kokkinakis. This saw Sinner prevail in a 3rd set tie break that ended 8-6 to conclude a tight match ( 6(9)-7, 6-4, 7-6(6) ). Another match that fully lived up to all the hype surrounding it was the battle of legends in Murray vs Wawrinka. Andy saw the finish line in this nearly 3 hour match on a steamy Monday afternoon. It was a wonderful display of tennis between two men nearing the end of their careers, proving that they both still have some in the tank to continue their illustrious stories ( 7-6(3), 5-7, 7-5 ). All of this leads us to the match of dreams between the crowd favorite Tiafoe up against the 12th seed Matteo Berrettini. This was not only one of the best matches of the 1st round, but of the entire tournament. Tiafoe got the better of Berrettini after 2 tiebreaks and just under the 3 hour mark. Tiafoe, as always, put on an incredible display of athleticism and needed every drop of energy he had to get past the fresh Italian ( 7-6(3), 4-6, 7-6(5) ). Tiafoe showed why he is one of the most exciting players of the tour and proved yet again that he is up with Kyrgios and The “Big 3” as must watch tennis. This win also helped propel him to a career high singles ranking of 24. This match-up also proved my earlier post to be a cold take as I said to keep an eye out for Berrettini as a dark horse for the tournament…..

The second round is where the hero of our story got the attention of the people. Borna Coric is a 25 year old Croatian player that had shoulder surgery in May 2021. He had only 4 tour level victories in the last 15 months going into Cincinnati including a defeat in the first round of last week’s tournament in Montreal. He entered the week with a first round victory over the young Italian Lorenzo Musetti. He was rewarded with a second round match up with the 2nd seed Rafael Nadal, not the best present. On the bright side, Nadal was a player that Coric had some relative success over, having a 2-2 lifetime record over the Spanish legend (including a 2016 victory over Nadal in Cincinnati). Coric took the first set in a tiebreak before a rain delay saw the match paused, giving Nadal some time to mental reset and rebegin the match. Nadal took the second set 4-6 before Coric pulled off the near impossible with taking the 3rd and final set 6-3 to put a bow on just his 6th tour level victory in over a year. Other noteworthy matches in the second round included Murray’s run end against fellow Brit Cam Norrie in a thrilling 3 set match. As well as, the 5th seed Casper Rudd losing against wild card American Blake Shelton. This was Shelton’s first ever Master’s 1000 tournament and would’ve been the story of the week if it wasn’t for Borna’s title run. 

The 3rd round saw 11 out of a potential 16 seeded players square off against one another for the last eight remaining spots in the quarterfinals. Medvedev, Tsitsipas, Norrie, and Alcaraz all saw their way through easy victories to clinch their spots. Man of the week Coric also faced little adversity as he defeated 15th seed Bautista Agut in straight sets.  Match of the round, in my opinion, went to a battle of tennis and emotions between Taylor Fritz and Andrey Rublev. Rublev won the first set in a tiebreak before losing control of his emotions in the second set. This is an issue that has plagued Rublev for sometime now, dating back as recently to last week’s tournament in Montreal where he suffered a similar meltdown against Nishioka. Rublev, still sporting the scars on his knuckles after punching his racket the week before, lost the second set 6-2. All the momentum and energy in Center Court pointed to Fritz running away with the match. However, Rublev was able to get control of his emotions and put up an honest fight in the final set. Ultimately Fritz prevailed by the score of 7-5 in the third set as his form continues to get better and better. John Isner also snuck his way into his first Masters 100 quarter-final since the Canadian Open in 2021 after a 3 set win against fellow American Sebastian Korda. 

The quarter-finals kept the strong momentum forward as Coric beat 7th seed Auger-Aliassime in straight sets. This was Coric’s first Masters 1000 semi-final since Shanghai all the way back in 2018, which just adds another layer to the already remarkable story. Tsitsipas battled hard to get over the fast serving Isner in 3 sets. This was the Greeks 7th semi-final appearance in the last 12 Masters 1000 tournaments, further cementing his place among the top of the rankings. The match of the round was between Cam Norrie and the young Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz. This was yet another 3 set clash that played 36 of the possible 39 games. It included 2 tiebreakers (which were split), and ended in Norrie making only his 2nd ever semi-final appearance in a Masters 1000 (his only other being his 2021 Indian Wells title). I ended up going 2/4 on my semi-finals predictions, which leaves some left to be desired. Medvedev and Tsitsipas had solid weeks getting their spot, and the two underdogs proved their talents while being in the Midwest.

The Coric train kept on moving as Borna completed yet another straight set match as he defeated Norrie 6-3, 6-4. The other semi-final match, which ended up being delayed by rain, was well worth the wait. Tsitsipas got the better of his rival Medvedev in a 3 set match. This was the 10th match-up between these two heavyweights of the “Next Gen” era. It was Tsitsipas’ 3rd victory over the Russian, giving him a 3-2 record over their last 5 match-ups. This meant that Tsitsipas would face up against Coric for the title in Cincinnati. It was the first time the two had played against each other since the 2019 US Open where Coric saved a handful of match points en route to victory. 

The final in Cincinnati wrote the final pages in Coric’s remarkable comeback story. A story that rivals the likes of Ivanisevic’s 2001 Wimbledon title, and Andy Murray’s 2019 title in Antwerp. Coric proved victorious in only 2 sets, including a 7-0 drumming in the first set tiebreak. Coric proved to be the best player of the tournament, beating an astounding 5 seeded players, and 3 wins over current top 10 players. It was a fairytale run for Coric, a run that won’t be seen again for years to come, and a sublime finish to a wonderful week of tennis. The Cincinnati Masters will likely remain one of my favorite tournaments of the year for decades to come, and it is because of stories like this. Parlayed it with the women’s draw, qualifier Carolina Garcia captured the title, including 3 top 10 wins herself. It is an unpredictable tournament that encapsulates all the things that make my home state great. 

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