Friday, August 19, 2022. 8:48 PM
(Update : Friday, August 19, 2022. 11:46 PM)
MASON, Ohio — Borna Coric continues to fight his way once morest the odds at the Cincinnati tournament, where he beat Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 6-4 in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Ranked 152nd in the world, the Croatian defeated the Quebecer and seventh seed in one hour and 42 minutes. In the second round, Coric defeated none other than Rafael Nadal.
Auger-Aliassime had 12 aces on Friday, but he also had five double faults. The Canadian took advantage of one of these aces to keep his service in the second end. On his next chance on serve, Auger-Aliassime didn’t allow a point, taking a 2-1 lead.
At 3-3, however, his rival signed a break when Auger-Aliassime sent a ball into the net. The Quebecer did enough to approach 4-5, but Coric did not concede anything in the 10th and final game.
The match ended with a long exchange where a backhand from the Canadian hit the net, but not in a favorable way. Coric was able to direct the ball far to the backhand of the opponent, whose raise was off target.
In the semi-finals, Coric will face Britain’s Cameron Norrie, who won a marathon of 3 hours and 4 minutes once morest world No. 4, Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, 7-6, 6-7, 6-4.
Norrie ended the match on his third match point with an ace. He had previously scored the only break in the decisive set, in the ninth game.
The southpaw also managed to come back from a 1-3 deficit in the third set.
Norrie had the last laugh despite Alcaraz leading 43-20 in game winners. The 18-year-old prodigy committed 44 unforced errors, compared to 41 for his rival.
Thanks to his victory, Norrie is guaranteed to climb at least to 9th place in the ATP rankings, which is a new career high.
