In a thrilling five set match during the third round of the 2020 United States Open on Friday, 27th ranked Borna Coric of Zagreb, Croatia defeated fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Athens, Greece, 6-7, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6. However it was the fourth set, that was extremely stunning.
Tsitsipas was leading Coric convincingly 5-1 in the fourth set. All Tsitsipas needed was to win one of the next four games to win the match. Two of those four games is when Tsitsipas was serving. However, Coric remarkably broke Tsitsipas twice to even the set at five games all. Coric then broke Tsitsipas again late in the fourth set to beat Tsitsipas by two games. Then in the fifth and deciding set tiebreak, Coric beat Tsitsipas 7-4.
Coric will now face Jordan Thompson of Australia in the round of 16 on Sunday. It will be interesting to see how Coric will be able to rebound after a five setter which obviously would have taken up a ton of energy. Thompson is coming off a straightforward 7-5, 6-4, 6-1 win over Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan. However one must realize that Thompson has yet to face a seeded player. He has also beaten Stefano Travaglia of Italy, 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 in the first round, and Egor Gerasimov of Belarus, 6-1, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in the second round.
It will be interesting to see how Tsitsipas rebounds mentally after such a devastating defeat. A lot was expected from Tsitsipas in New York over the next week, especially with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal not playing at the 2020 United States Open. But Tsitsipas ended up losing a match he should have clearly won.
Coric meanwhile was one of two Croats in the singles draws to reach the round of 16. The other was Petra Martic of Split, Croatia, the eighth seed in the women’s draw. However on Sunday, Martic was beaten by Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.
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