This is just the second title in the Zagreb player’s career!
Borna Ćorić played an unbelievable match against world No. 1 Roger Federer in the Halle Open final to achieve the biggest result of his career! Ćorić defeated the most celebrated tennis player in history with 7:6, 4:6, 6:2, reports Index.hr on June 24, 2018.
The moment that @borna_coric stunned Roger Federer for the biggest ? of his career!
??#GerryWeberOpen pic.twitter.com/xzkct8UuWv
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) June 24, 2018
Borna had previously won his only title last year in Marrakech in the ATP 250 tournament. Federer, however, has nine titles in Halle alone and 98 in his career. Federer was hoping a win would bring him his 99th so he could celebrate his 100th career title at Wimbledon this year.
Ćorić took the first set to Federer in a tie-break to come back 4:6, while in the second set, Borna buckled in the 8th game and lost this service, which Federer used for 6:3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v=JBKisjutC3U
Borna struggled to reach a break until the sixth game of the last set where Federer made a series of mistakes, including slicing a backhand long which allowed Borna to break him.
After that, the Croatian tennis player routinely served for 5:2, then pressed Federer’s service again and used the second match-point after Federer’s mistake on the net.
Federer finished the match with 12 aces, while Borna had one less. The Swiss player took advantage of one of the three break opportunities, and the 21-year-old three out of four for the biggest win ever in his career. Federer threatened Borna’s service more throughout the game, winning 33% of the Croat’s service, though he lost it in the last set.
“It was not easy, but I really enjoyed the past few days,” said a rather excited Borna, adding, “Give me a bit of credit, this is just the second title in my career.”
On Monday, Borna will be the 21st world tennis player in the world, which is his best career ranking. With this victory, Federer will be bumped from the first place which will see the return of Rafael Nadal.
Ćorić has thus won 500 ATP points and $427,000 for this triumph.
