How Borna Coric went from world no. 152 to seeded at 2022 US Open

| by Balasz Virag

Borna Coric enjoyed the best week of his career at the 2022 Cincinnati Masters when he lifted his first ATP 1000 trophy.

In May last year, the 25-years-old Croat ended his season early as he had to undergo a shoulder surgery. Although, he was one of the first player to arrive for the 2022 Australian Open, he withdrew from the tournament as his shoulder was not ready to compete.

Then, Borna Coric played a series of tournaments but after not making and deep run, he elected to play a few Challenger events in Italy. He eventually won in Parma, beating some good players on his way to the title.

"Novak Djokovic likes to help people who have problems" - says Viktor Troicki
"Novak Djokovic likes to help people who have problems" - says Viktor Troicki

After a player returns from injury, he can use a protected ranking up to 9 times and that's what Borna Coric did to enter all of the ATP events this year. However, the 2022 Cincinnati Masters was his last event where he was eligible to use the protected ranking and if he wouldn't earn enough points, he would be forced to play qualifying tournaments in the upcoming events.

“If I want to do my job, which is to play tennis, I need to do this, otherwise I cannot play tennis. I don’t think it’s a huge sacrifice to have an extra 30 minutes of work to get to play tennis,” Coric told ATPTour.com earlier in the week. “You get to do what you love, it’s not a huge deal. If I usually come one hour before practice, now I need to come one and a half hours. That’s it. It’s not a big deal.”

Nadal leads list of 5 players that can end up No. 1 after the US Open
Nadal leads list of 5 players that can end up No. 1 after the US Open

As he revealed ahead of the tournament, he still needs to take care of his shoulder, but he tried not to think about that in Cincinnati. And it showed on the court when he defeated Lorenzo Musetti, Rafael Nadal, Roberto Bautista, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Cameron Norrie and eventually Stefanos Tsitsipas to get 1000 points and move from 152nd place in the ATP Rankings to no. 29, granting him a seeded spot at the 2022 US Open.

“I have no words, to be honest. It's just unbelievable feeling. Like I said many times, I [am] just going to enjoy this,” Coric said. “I thought I could play well. I was training hard, and I knew I could play good tennis, but that I could play this level tennis, I was just not aware. I'm just super happy.”

“I knew I needed to stay calm. I needed to do my recovery and to stay fresh, basically, because that's most important. And I think that's what I did,” Coric said. “But I think I kind of learned that the hard way, because I was doing those mistakes when I was younger where I would beat some good players, and then I would just go in the holiday mode.”

"I don't have a clear answer" - Tsitsipas after losing to Coric in Cincinnati
"I don't have a clear answer" - Tsitsipas after losing to Coric in Cincinnati

Read the full article

Just in

Look at more articles