Borna Coric has ended his fairytale run at the Western and Southern Open by winning his first-ever Masters 1000 title after fighting back to defeat Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets.
The 25-year-old overcame a slow start to topple his Greek rival 7-6(0), 6-2, in what is his fifth consecutive win over a top 20 player in Cincinnati. Coric looked to be in trouble early on after falling behind 1-4 before staging a valiant fightback to draw level and then going on to dominate the tiebreaker. Then in the second set, the Croat impressively won 87% of his first service points en route to the biggest victory of his career. Hitting a total of 37 winners against just 14 unforced errors.
“It’s just an unbelievable feeling. I’m just gonna enjoy this. I thought I could play well. I was training hard and I knew I could play good tennis. But that I could play at this level of tennis, I was just not aware.” Coric said during his press conference.
As for his tentative start to the match, Coric managed to turn his fortune around with a more aggressive approach along with the mindset he had nothing to lose. Cincinnati was only the second Masters 1000 final he has played in and his first since 2018.
“I just realized that I need to be more aggressive. I think I came into the match with the mindset of he’s (Tsitsipas) gonna miss. He’s an unbelievable player and he’s not gonna miss on my solid balls,” he explained.
“I said to myself I have nothing to lose. If I continue like this, I’m going to lose anyway because he’s also playing very, very good. He was putting pressure on me. He was taking the ball super early. I was under lots of pressure.”
“I needed to go more for the balls. Not necessarily for the winners but just I need to hit harder, I need to hit deeper so he cannot attack me so easily.”
Beating Tsitsipas completes a series of high-profile wins Coric has managed to achieve en route to the title. Earlier in the tournament, he also defeated Rafael Nadal, Roberto Bautista Agut, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Cameron Norrie. Before the tournament, he hadn’t defeated a top 20 player since the 2020 US Open.
The triumph comes five months after Coric returned to the Tour following a year-long absence due to shoulder surgery. He has lost eight out of 13 Tour-level matches played since his comeback before producing a shock run in Cincinnati.
“I didn’t believe I was going to win the tournament. I think when I beat (Lorenzo) Musetti (in the first round) I came to the locker room and I asked my coach, Who do I play next?” he said.
“I never look too much forward. I was just believing that I can win the next match. That’s what I did for five days in a row.”
Coric has returned back into the world’s top 30 for the first time since May 2021 as a result of his latest win. He was ranked as low as 278th earlier this year.
