Borna Coric defeats Stefanos Tsitsipas to cap off incredible week with Western & Southern Open title

Coric,
who
entered
the
tournament
ranked
152nd
in
the
world,
put
together
a
week
of
tennis
he
will
never
forget
as
he
beat
five
consecutive
top-20
opponents
in
Rafael
Nadal,
Roberto
Bautista-Agut,
Felix
Auger-Aliassime,
Cameron
Norrie
and
finally
Tsitsipas.

Tsitsipas
looked
likely
to
enjoy
a
comfortable
first
set
when
he
raced
to
a
4-1
lead
after
breaking
Coric’s
serve
at
the
first
opportunity,
but
the
Croatian
roared
back
to
level
the
scores
and
force
a
tie-break
after
saving
three
more
break
points.

The
momentum
was
with
Coric
from
there
as
he
cruised
through
the
tie-break
without
dropping
a
point
to
take
the
opener
and
stun
the
world
number
seven.

Tsitsipas
threatened
to
take
the
momentum
straight
back
as
he
quickly
took
a
love-to-40
lead
against
Coric’s
opening
service
game
of
the
second
set,
but
the
25-year-old
in
the
second
ATP
Masters
1000
final
of
his
career
–
and
the
first
since
Shanghai
in
2018
–
was
on
a
mission,
saving
another
three
break
points
to
stay
in
control.

Coric
would
save
six
of
the
seven
total
break
points
he
faced
in
the
contest,
and
he
put
an
exclamation
point
on
the
best
tournament
of
his
career
by
breaking
the
Greek’s
serve
twice
to
secure
the
win.

The
moment

@borna_coric
became
a
Masters
1000
champion!
????@CincyTennis
|

#CincyTennis
pic.twitter.com/g9vPIusg3H

—
ATP
Tour
(@atptour)

August
21,
2022

The
stats
indicate
this
was
far
from
a
fluke,
as
Coric
was
better
both
on
serve
–
winning
69
per
cent
of
his
points
compared
to
57
per
cent
from
Tsitsipas
–
and
on
return,
creating
12
break
points
opportunities
while
Tsitsipas
created
seven.

With
the
win,
and
the
1000
ranking
points,
Coric
will
rise
123
places
when
the
next
rankings
are
released,
up
to
29th.