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17-year-old Borna Coric, of Croatia, made a splash in the tennis sphere on Friday as he stunned World No. 3 Rafael Nadal in straight sets in the quarter-finals of the ATP Swiss Indoors event in Basel. While tennis aficionados have been following him for a few months now, Coric is largely unknown to the rest of the world.
To educate our readers on perhaps the next big superstar in men’s tennis, we bring you 10 things you need to know about Borna Coric!!
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1. Coric’s win over Nadal makes him the youngest player ever to beat the Spaniard, besting Nick Kyrgios’ effort when the 19-year-old Australian defeated Nadal at Wimbledon earlier this year. The win was even more impressive considering Nadal was one of Coric’s favourite players while he was growing up; the others were fellow Croatians Goran Ivanisevic and Mario Ancic. Nadal was Coric’s second Top 15 scalp this week in Basel; he knocked out World No. 13 Ernests Gulbis in the first round.
2. The Croatian is currently ranked No. 124 in the world, having risen from No. 407 in the last 12 months. And he will go higher on Monday – Coric will break into the Top 100 for the first time, making him the youngest 17-year-old, and in fact, the youngest player under 21 in the Top 100. Given the evolution of the men’s game, it is not commonplace that a 17-year-old makes it to the Top 100 in the world these days. The last time it happened was 10 years ago, when Frenchman Richard Gasquet and Nadal himself made it to the Top 100 as 17-year-olds.
3. This may have been the first time that the two played on the professional circuit, but Coric is certainly not unfamiliar with the Spaniard. Nadal invited the Croatian teen to train with him during the off-season in Majorca, Spain.
4. Coric has been marked out for success for some time now. He won the boys’ singles title at the US Open in New York in 2013, beating Kyrgios’ best mate Thanasi Kokkinakis in the final. That win earned him the No. 1 spot in the ITF junior world rankings. He also reached the semifinals in the junior events at the Australian Open and French Open in 2013.
5. The US Open was the last junior event he played. After that, he made a transition to the ITF Futures circuit, winning 3 titles between September and December (in all, he won 5 ITF Futures titles in 2013). The 6ft 1 inch Croatian scored a stunning five-set win over then World No. 21 Jerzy Janowicz in a thrilling five-setter in the Davis Cup in April this year, helping the Croats beat Poland in the Europe/ Africa zonal group league.
6. After receiving a wild card into his home event, the ATP Umag Open in July, Coric scored hs first Top 50 win when he beat Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin in straight sets. Coric followed that with a win over World No. 117 Horacio Zeballos, before falling to 20th ranked Fabio Fognini in three close sets. He also won his first ATP Challenger title in September in Turkey, a win that propelled him into the Top 150 in the rankings.
7. Coric, who splits his time between Croatia and London, came into the US Open in August with the aim of making it through the qualifying draw. Not only did he succeed in that, but he also upset the 29th seeded Lukas Rosol in straight sets in the first round. Coric went on to lose to 34-year-old Victor Estrella Burgos in the second round.
8. While he might look like a soft-spoken kid, Coric is a big fan of boxer Mike Tyson; in an interview to the ATP Tour, he said “I like his character. He’s a big fighter like me so I just like him”. He says Tyson’s book ‘Undisputed Truth’ is also his favourite book. The Croatian believes that if he wasn't a tennis player, he would have been a boxer.
9. The multi-lingual Coric (he speaks Croatian, English and German) lists his biggest strengths as his movement and his mental toughness. Not bad for a 17-year-old, who says his ambition is to be World No. 1.
10. Like Nadal, Coric has his own idiosyncracies about his water bottles on the court. After winning the US Open boys’ title last year, he was asked about the same and here is his response: “That's a little bit of my thing. I'm doing it before my match. While the match sometimes no, sometimes yes. It depends how I'm playing. It's very, very complicated. Depends how I'm feeling. But always when I'm starting the match, I always put on the same place like first day of the tournament.”
