By Chris Oddo | Friday July 24, 2015

 

Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut ended the run of 18-year-old Borna Coric with a solid performance on Friday in Umag.

Photo Source: Croatia Open Umag

Despite putting his best foot forward, 18-year-old Borna Coric met his match on Friday at the Croatia Open Umag. The rising star was taken down by the fleet-footed and deceptively powerful Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain, 6-3, 6-3.

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Bautista Agut reached his fourth ATP semifinal of 2015 and improved to 23-18 on the season by saving all four break points he faced and notching crucial breaks in both sets.

It was a difficult fight throughout, but Coric couldn’t do enough to break down the squeaky-clean game of the 27-year-old, despite saving the first five break points he faced in the opener and having multiple chances to break back and get on serve in the ninth game of the first set after Bautista had taken the lead.

Coric’s best chance to get back on serve came on his first break point of the ninth game. He had a forehand all lined up but when he pulled the trigger the result was an excruciatingly close miss.

After saving another two break points, the Spaniard would seal the set with an overhead smash.

In the second set Coric’s level dropped and it showed. He had to see the trainer for a spell and after he returned to play he was broken for 4-3 after another forehand miss. This setback proved to be too much for Coric, as he belted a ball out of the stadium, was given a code violation warning and tossed his racquet in disgust. Two games later he was broken for the match by Bautista Agut, leaving the ATP's most successful teenager in 2015 one win shy of the 20-win plateau.

21-year-old Dominic Thiem battled back from a set down to take out his compatriot Andreas Haider-Maurer, who was forced to retire with Thiem leading 6-7(5), 6-1, 3-0.

Thiem will face the winner of tonight’s match between top-seeded Gael Monfils and 6th-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber.

Joao Sousa notched the upset of the day when he upset 3rd-seeded Fabio Fognini, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(6), saving a match point in the final-set tiebreaker. Sousa reaches his third semifinal of the year while Fognini, who seemed to struggle with a hand or wrist injury at times, was left to lament his 59 unforced errors. The Italian fought back from 2-0 down in the third set, then battled back from 3-0 down in the deciding tiebreak, but double-faulted with a 5-4 lead in the tiebreaker and lost the final three points to Sousa after earning his match point.

Sousa will do battle with Bautista Agut in Saturday’s semifinals. Bautista Agut owns a 2-0 record vs. Sousa, with both matches coming at the Challenger level.