Borna Coric needed to use protected ranking to enter the 2022 Cincinnati Masters but he ended the week with trophy for the champion.
After missing out on the majority of the 2021 season, Borna Coric found himself out of Top 250 of the ATP Rankings. However, the Croatian used his protected ranking to enter the 2022 Cincinnati Masters and he played incredible tennis to win his 3rd ATP title and first ATP Masters 1000 title.
This year, the 25-years-old Croat won already one title but at a Challenger Tour in Parma. Borna Coric started his week in Cincinnati with victory over Lorenzo Musetti and in the second round of the tournament, he stunned the second-seeded Rafael Nadal.
However, no one expected that the 22-time Grand Slam champion would be the only player to win a set against the Croatian player this week. Borna Coric then defeated Roberto Bautista, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Cameron Norrie without losing a set before taking on Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The two players met twice before and they both got one victory, despite their first meeting ending with a retirement of the Croat. In the first set of the 2022 Cincinnati Masters final, Stefanos Tsitsipas started much better when he won 12 out of first 14 points to get a quick 3-0 lead.
However, Borna Coric soon showed the tennis he was playing the whole week and got the break back and so the set reached the tie-break. There, it was the Croatian who was much better and won it without dropping a point, 7-0.
In the second set, Tsitsipas started by winning the first three points and earning three breakpoints, however, his opponent stayed calm and the Greek couldn't create any more breakpoint chances in the set.
On the other hand, after not using the first three breakpoints in the second set, Coric used his next chances and got two breaks to win the match 7-6(0), 6-2 and lift his first ATP Masters 1000 trophy. Moreover, he will move to the 29th place in the ATP Rankings and most probably, he will be seeded at the 2022 US Open.
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