Coric wins in Cincinnati: Tsitsipas surrenders in two sets in the final

After the success of the qualified Caroline Garcia in the women’s tournament, the men’s title in Cincinnati goes to the Croatian Borna Coric, ranked as number 152 in the world but with the ranking protected following the long stop for the operation on his right shoulder. After taking out Rafael Nadal on his debut, Coric completes the perfect week by beating favorite Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6 6-2 in the final in just an hour and 56 minutes of play.

The match

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Tsitsipas starts with a solid first round of bat: four firsts and four quick points. The first prolonged exchanges arrive on the Coric service. The tape puts Coric’s forehand in the corridor, unable to keep up with his rival. With a good high backhand volley, Tsitspas gets the first two break points of the match: the first is enough for him to go up 2-0 and then with another easy turn to take him to 3-0. There seems to be only one player on the pitch, then at 0-3, after 11 minutes of play, Coric makes himself heard, takes courage, keeps the bar at zero and makes the first punch of the match. Coric takes another turn to serve at zero and on 2-4 he moves forward 0-30. The Greek ventures to serve and volley, but Coric’s forehand response is unstoppable: the Croatian gets three break points to get back into the game. The Greek saves two, but on the third he puts the anonymous straight in the corridor. To catch the Greek on 4 all, Coric is forced to cancel three break points: it is a very hard game that Coric plays very carefully. On 5 all Tsitsipas wins a great point for 30-15, but Coric immediately responds with an anomalous forehand along the line for 30 all. It is the most important moment of the set: the Greek offers a break point to Coric to serve for the set, but he cancels it, goes to the net and then with a winning forehand he manages to climb to 6-5 with difficulty. The Croatian, however, is confident, holds at 15 for the 6 all and then wins slips seven consecutive points to win the tie-break. In the first game of the second set Coric is forced to save three consecutive break points. In the fourth game it is Coric’s turn to miss three balls to climb 3-1. But the Croatian makes up for it immediately and at 3-2 he breaks on the third occasion for the 4-2. The Croatian holds, at the sixth useful ball he climbs to 5-2, one step away from the dream. Tsitsipas’s forehand no longer hurts, Coric on the other hand is always very aggressive and with the response he gets two match points. On the first he misses by sinking the forehand into the net, on the second instead Tsitsipas puts out and Cilic returns to heaven.

What a leap

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For the Croatian it is the first success in a Masters 1000, the third ever in his career after the victory on clay in Marrakech in 2017 over Philipp Kolhschreiber and the one on the grass in Halle in 2018 over maestro Roger Federer. With this victory Coric makes a huge leap in the world rankings passing from number 152 to number 29 in the world right in front of our Lorenzo Musetti. Coric succeeds Alexander Zverev in the roll of honor who had won the 2021 edition by beating Andrey Rublev in the final. Coric is also the fourth different winner of the last four editions: Medvedev in 2019, Djokovic in 2020, Zverev in 2021 and Coric in 2022. Coric is also the lowest ranked player to have won a Masters 1000 title. In 1996 Roberto Carretero Hamburg won from number 143 in the world. Luca Marianantoni