In his first win in the fourth match against the 33-year-old Czech player, Borna Ćorić achieved a massive turnaround to push into the quarterfinal of the Dubai Open.
Croatian tennis player Borna Ćorić plunged into the quarterfinal of the ATP tournament in Dubai on Wednesday. In the second round, Ćorić defeated Czech veteran Tomas Berdych with 1:6, 6:1, 7:6 (4) after two hours and 13 minutes of play, reports Gol.hr on February 27, 2019.
It was Ćorić’s first win in his fourth match against the 33-year-old Czech player, and the 22-year-old Zagreb native transformed his game after poor play and losing the first five gems.
At the very beginning of the match, Ćorić had too many unforced errors and lost his first service. But the signs of a better Ćorić came in the fifth game of the match, when he secured the first break that Berdych saved with an ace.
In the second set, the roles changed, and Ćorić reduced his number of errors to switch the result. Ćorić achieved the first break for an advantage of 2:0 at a 3:1 lead, and didn’t give Berdych an opportunity to equalize, taking his service away again to take the game into the third set.
Until the 4:4 result in the decisive set, both players kept their service, and Ćorić managed to secure three breaks. For the first point, Berdych made a double fault. For the second, Ćorić managed to return, and Berdych missed a volley. Although he played each one of these three breaks on Berdych’s second service, Ćorić failed to win any of the points and had to win the match through a tiebreak.
From the very beginning of the decisive game, Ćorić held the advantage as Berdych made another double fault. When Ćorić reached a mini-break at 4-4 for the third time, he managed to win two points on his service and thus a place in the quarterfinal of the tournament.
Ćorić won both matches in Dubai with a tiebreak in the third set. Ćorić’s next rival will be Georgian player Nikoloz Basilashvili, who defeated Spanish player Robert Bautista Agut 6:7 (2), 6:4, 6:3.
The two will meet on Thursday at 5 pm Croatia time.
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