The Croatian needed two tiebreakers to book his spot in the semifinals.
Borna Coric is into the semifinals after beating the world number 45 Kei Nishikori in straight sets 7-6,7-6 in a great match that went back and forth at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam. The 24-year-old fired 28 winners while the 31-year-old hit 23 unforced errors.
The Japanese world number 45 got off to an aggressive start earning three breakpoints off the opening service game of the match as it seemed like the Croat was slow out of the gates.
He would manage to hold his opening service game but the Japanese world number 45 kept applying pressure on the Croat service games and at 2-2 he would have two more chances to break and would ultimately break when Coric served a double fault to take a 3-2 lead.
The break didn’t last long as the Zagreb native would break right back the following service game and we were all square at 3-3. The first set would be decided by a tiebreaker which the Croat would get the crucial break after playing four extremely tight points to take a 4-2 lead in the breaker.
He would eventually win the breaker 7-2 thus winning the first set 7-6 and was one set away from the final four in Rotterdam.
The second set was almost like the first but this time Coric carried the momentum and had two breakpoints in the opening service game of the second set and would break on his third opportunity of the set when the world number 45 sent a ball out for the early 1-0 lead.
The Shimane, Japan native wasn’t going to go away quietly and in the following game off three errors from the Croat he had three breakpoints but the world number 26 would do a great job rallying back to save them all and hold serve.
At 2-1 the Bradenton, Florida resident had two more chances to break and he would break to go back on serve at 2-2 when the 24 year old would send a ball long.
It was turning once again into a seesaw battle and the very next game Coric went back on the offensive earning two more breakpoints but this time the Japanese world number 45 did a good job saving them and held serve.
The second set would once again be decided by another tiebreaker and the Croat got the early break in the first point playing a great rally and finishing it with a sublime passing shot to take a 1-0 lead.
After winning the next point on serve the Japanese native won two straight points as Coric hit two unforced errors in a row and we had a feeling this was going to be decided in a third set.
That’s when the world number 26 stormed back and won the next two doing a good job forcing the errors off his opponents racquet to even the breaker at 4-4.
The Croat would get the crucial break the very next point as Nishikori would send a return into the net and with a sigh of disbelief he fell to his knees thinking the match was over.
Coric would indeed win the next two points with his solid forehand to win the match and book his spot in the final four.
After the match in an on court interview he gave his thoughts of the win.
“It was very close and I thought I was serving very well but in the game, I felt like he was playing really fast and I couldn’t get on top of the rally so I needed to do a lot of running obviously it was a bit tiring but in the end, it was a very good match”.
Coric will next face Hungarian Marton Fucsovics in the semi-finals on Saturday.
Quarter Finals day
It was quarter finals day at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam and there was some great matches. Andrey Rublev needed three sets to beat Jeremy Chardy beating him 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 while Stefanos Tsitipas also needed three sets to beat Karen Khachanov 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 to set up a semi final meeting on Saturday afternoon with Rublev.