ATP: Borna Coric retires Vienna defending champion Lucas Pouille

Borna Coric has reached the quarter finals of the ATP World Tour 500 tournament in the Vienna Stadthalle. The Croatian defeated defending champion Lucas Pouille from France in three sets.

Due to Jürgen Melzer’s illness, the mission came somewhat earlier than planned – however, Borna Coric was not upset. The Croatian, who dominated the semi-finals a few days ago in Shanghai Roger Federer and only lost to Novak Djokovic in the final, finished Lucas Pouille’s “Mission Title Defence” at the ATP World Tour 500 tournament in Vienna.

Coric won 3-6, 6-0 and 6-4 after two hours of play and will face Kevin Anderson in the quarter-finals on Friday. The South African had entered the final eight without a fight. Opponent Jürgen Melzer had to withdraw a few minutes before the start of the game, could not even be honoured on the court for his last use in the singles (which was now the one on Monday against Milos Raonic). The Austrian legend had to spend the night in hospital, a start in the double at Philipp Oswald’s side on Thursday seems highly unlikely.

Coric, on the other hand, did not let the efforts of the last few weeks show, found his way back into the match after a difficult start. Coric already had to go the full distance to start against Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

Here the single tableau in Vienna