Borna Coric lost his first ATP Masters 1000 final on Sunday. No shame – no grass has grown against Novak Djokovic at the moment.
Step by step to the top – this is how Borna Coric works on his career. With the 600 points from Shanghai, the Croatian has made good progress, finishing 13th in the ATP world rankings. And Coric certainly hadn’t expected that.
“I’m very happy with the whole week,” said the 22-year-old after the two-set defeat to Novak Djokovic. Coric hadn’t managed to take the Serb’s serve – like no other player during the entire event. After all, there was a break chance for the outsider.
On the way to the final, Borna Coric has taken two Swiss players off the table: Right at the start Stan Wawrinka, against whom he had to fight the full distance. And in the preliminary round Roger Federer, who again Coric didn’t give a single break chance to.
The week would have been very pleasant, Coric continued. “Actually, I thought Monday morning I was going home on Monday night.” Then to reach the first final in this category, they of course great.
For the participation at the ATP Final in London the performance of Shanghai will probably have come too late, but at least one big highlight is still pending for Borna Coric: The Davis Cup final with the Croatian team in France. After last week’s performances, Coric must now be regarded as the strongest player of all the candidates in terms of form – especially as fellow countryman Marin Cilic has not been as strong as he used to be in the recent past.
The reason for the improvement is also off court. “During the winter break, I decided to change my entire team,” said Coric, who was accompanied by Kristijan Schneider in Shanghai. “And I took a completely different approach. I trained for six weeks. And that helped me from the beginning of the year.”