Borna Coric reaches his first quarter final at Grand Slam level - UBITENNIS

Borna Coric reaches his first quarter final at Grand Slam level

By sampaolo
3 Min Read

Number 27 seed Borna Coric beat Australia’s Jordan Thompson 7-5 6-1 6-3 in 2 hours and 8 minutes in Louis Armstrong Stadium to reach his first quarter final at Grand Slam level at the US Open. Coric saved six match points in his third round match against Stefanos Tsitsipas on Friday. 

Coric faced two break points and dropped his serve once. He converted six of his eleven break points. 

Coric earned his first break in the third game after a loose forehand from Thompson. The Croatian star was broken back at 15 with two baseline errors, as he was serving for the first set at 5-4. 

Coric immediately broke to love immediately in the 11th game and held serve after deuce in the 12th game to win the first set 7-5 after 54 minutes with a big on his third set point. 

Coric made just three unforced errors and earned three consecutive breaks to cruise through to a 6-1 win in the second set. Thompson wasted a game point at 1-1 and dropped his serve after sending his forehand long. Coric got another break in the fifth game after forehand errors from Thompson and sealed the second set 6-1 with a return winner.

In the third set Coric dropped six points on his first serve and broke serve at love in the sixth game when Thompson hit his backhand into the net. Coric held serve at 30 with a service winner to build up a 5-2 lead and closed out the match with a forehand down the line winner in the ninth game. 

Coric set up a quarter final clash against Alexander Zverev, who beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in straight sets. Zverev has reached the fourth quarter final at Grand Slam in his career. The German star qualified for the semifinal at the 2020 Australian Open and the quarter final at the French Open in 2018 and 2019. 

“I started the match very well. From 5-3 in the first set, I maybe choked a little bit, but that’s normal. This is the biggest chance in my career to get to the quarter finals of a Grand Slam. I was more relaxed after the first set and started to play much better. I was watching all of his matches and I thought he was playing some of his best tennis. It’s going to be a very interesting match”, said Coric. 

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