ATP: Fabio Fognini and Borna Coric lose their favourites in Gstaad

A nasty surprise for the favourites at the ATP sand court tournament in Gstaad: The top seeded Fabio Fognini missed the quarter-finals as well as Borna Coric in third place.

Perhaps the omens in Gstaad were simply not the best for Fabio Fognini. Although: The extrovert Italian was the defending champion at the Swiss Open in the Bernese Oberland – and only last Sunday in Bastad, Sweden, he won the seventh tournament of his individual career.

It was the second event of the season after the triumph in Sao Paulo in February. Fognini travelled to Switzerland with a record of 31:15 match wins.

So it’s all good – or not? Well, his sister tweetted a photo from Gstaad on Wednesday, which revealed the big brother in little as a coward. Fulvia Fognini in any case left no doubt in her tweet that Fabio is afraid of horses.

The world ranking 14. did not feel quite well in his skin also on Thursday at 1:6, 6:3, 3:6 against the qualifier Jurgen Zopp. 30-year-old Este, number 107 in the ATP ranking, caused a sensation at the French Open when he knocked out top 15 player Jack Sock in round one.

The Croatian Borna Coric, the world’s number 21, also experienced a nasty surprise. Laslo Djere lost 4:6, 6:1, 1:6 in 1:53 hours to the Halle/Westphalian triumphant Laslo Djere, who was the biggest victory for the 23-year-old Serbian in the quarter-finals of an ATP tournament for the second time in a week, measured by his opponent’s ranking position.

At Event in Umag the world ranking 101st Djere failed in the round of the last eight due to the later winner and French Open semi-finalist Marco Cecchinato (Italy). Djere will now meet Lucky Loser Viktor Galovic from Croatia on Friday. Zopp has to deal with Facundo Bagnis from Argentina.

Roberto Bautista Agut and his Spanish compatriot Feliciano Lopez (No. 8) had already reached the quarter-finals in Gstaad yesterday.