By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Borna Coric closed the curtain on Nick Kyrgios, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, to advance to the Miami Open quarterfinals for the second straight year.
MIAMI—Dazzle dueled discipline in an entertaining clash on Grandstand.
The controlled competitor beat the chaos candidate.
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Shrugging show-stopping shots from an electric opponent, Borna Coric closed the curtain on Nick Kyrgios, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, to advance to the Miami Open quarterfinals for the second straight year.
"It hasn't been, you know, great (season)," Coric said afterward. "This is definitely helping me, you know, now to get some more confidence for my next matches, for the next tournament, for the clay court where I think I'm playing the best tennis, to be honest."
It is the sixth Masters quarterfinal for the 22-year-old Croatian, who was runner-up to Novak Djokovic in Shanghai last fall.
The 13th-ranked Croatian advanced to a quarterfinal vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime, who defeated Nikoloz Basilashvili, 7-6 (4), 6-4.
“Coric that is one of the most solid players on the tour from the baseline, super disciplined,” Auger-Aliassime said. “That (I) would have to, you know, find ways to create some space. Maybe finish the points at the net a little bit more.”
The quarterfinal puts pressure squarely on Coric’s shoulders facing the 18-year-old Canadian, who is the first qualifier since Guillermo Canas in 2007 to reach the Miami quarterfinals.
“It's gonna be something new, definitely. I'm just really looking forward to it,” Coric said. “And also to see how I'm going to react on that, how I'm going to behave in that kind of situation, which I have been but not many times, especially at the big occasions, you know, in the quarterfinals of the 1000.
“So I need to prepare very well mentally. I need to be ready. I might not play my best tennis because of the pressure or because of this new kind of situation.”
Today, Coric briefly got caught up in Kyrgios’ game when he tried a rally tweener.
Incensed with that lapse and sloppy first-set play, the Croatian spiked his racquet to court twice.
That eruption helped him reset as he came back to hold serve to start the second set.
“That was the moment where I was really close of actually losing the match, because I was losing my composure,” Coric said. “I was not playing well. I was not serving well. I just kind of didn't know what to do anymore.
“It got me back on my feet. I let go all of my frustrations, and I started to play better again. I started to serve better. I started to think, you know, more clear. So that was one of the turning points, definitely, yeah.”
Wearing nearly identical Nike outfits, Coric and Kyrgios were sartorial clones and stylistic opposites.
Coric invested intensity and urgency into every point like a cyclist attacking hills training for the Tour de France, while Kyrgios was a tennis version of Evel Knevel—soaring to heights seldom reached by others only to crash and burn smashing his racquet at one point and incurring a point penalty for dropping a few F-bombs in the final set.
In a recurring script, Kyrgios hit some mind-blowing shots, entertained the crowd, then grew ornery jawing with chair umpire Gianluca Moscarella and fan as his interested wane beneath a bright sun.
“Honestly, today, just a more disciplined player just won,” Kyrgios conceded afterward. “He's an unbelievable competitor. He doesn't give you any free points. He played solid.
“I just lost concentration. Kind of got a little bored in the second set, like my concentration just started veering off. Like, I was 40-15 up. I think it was maybe at 2-1 in the second. I started hitting, like, a Federer serve and stuff. I just lost a bit of concentration.”
Kyrgios conjured flashes of magic before degenerating into mayhem.
Down 1-3 in the opener, Kyrgios carved a no-look dropper, burst back to the baseline for an absolutely audacious angled tweener winners that brought Grandstand fans to their feet. That shot was followed by a pose and a glare as Kyrgios reveled in an electric exchange with fans breaking back for 2-3.
Asked the motivation for the shot, a candid Kyrgios replied: “Um, honestly, I wasn't going to run for the lob. Then I just ran for it and somehow I hit shot. I don't really think when I'm out there. I just play.”
That sequence sparked a surge that saw Kyrgios win five of the final six games of the set smacking a 127 mph serve to snatch a one-set lead in 42 minutes.
The beauty of Coric’s game is his willingness to do the small things correctly. While Kyrgios sometimes hits his forehand flat-footed, occasionally looked unprepared for returns back at him and sometimes didn’t seem interested chasing running forehands, Coric loves the sweat, grind and give-and-take of rallies. Coric, who knocked off Federer in the Halle final on grass last year, knows Kyrgios isn’t committed to extended exchanges.
The Croat wisely waited for his chance—and when it came he pounced.
Kyrgios, who barked at himself to “fu—ing split step!” midway through the set, badly bungled a routine overhead to face break point. Coric smacked a shot down the line breaking for 4-2—and cracking Kyrgios’ concentration.
The explosive Aussie spiked his racquet to the court twice leaving a mangled mess then teased fans with the prospect of the battered souvenir eventually handing it to a bearded dude wearing a Boston Celtics Kyrie Irving jersey and creating an instant celebrity. On subsequent changeovers, other fans approached the fan to take selfies with him and the battered souvenir.
“He's a good enough player to just capitalize,” Kyrgios said. “And I lost the match on my racquet today, no doubt about it. But, you know, it's no surprise, honestly. I have done it before.
“You know, it's a tough loss. I mean, there were some really cool points, obviously. I just have to be better mentally. Simple as that. I've got to lock in, just take care of 40-15 points, not screw around so much.”
Coric absorbed three aces in a row from his opponent before serving out the set.
B Pressure from his unerring opponent, annoyance from a fan who yelled “Play some tennis Nick”, and possible fatigue from playing on one of the warmer days of the tournament conspired to send Kyrgios over the edge.
“Can you guys stop talking? It’s really annoying,” Kyrgios said at one point before barking at the chair “you have the mic—use it!”
Finding his range and rhythm, Coric extended baseline rallies and tested Kyrgios’ desire and movement. A cranky Kyrgios showed little footwork netting a forehand then suddenly started hitting one-handed backhands as Coric break for 3-2.
Two games later festering frustration blew up as Kyrgios, who had a fan ejected from his prior match, yelled “F—k you man!” incurring a point penalty and surrendering serve to fall into a 2-5 hole.
Kyrgios claims it’s about respect, but when your priority is feuding with a fan at 2-all in the final set with a Masters quarterfinal on the line then your priorities are clearly kind of screwed up.
“I mean, I'm playing for two hours and 20 minutes, and a guy yells at me, like, ‘Play some tennis,’ I'm not going to take it,” Kyrgios said. “So I said, F you, to him. Probably not needed, but at that time, like, when you're competing and in the heat of the moment, it's probably not what you want to hear.”
While Kyrgios scored style points, Coric's consistency upstaged him in the end.
"(Nick's) getting the attention, but that's normal, because he's making the shots which are unbelievable," Coric said. "His style of the tennis, he's like that. That's actually fair enough for me. You know, if I could play like that, with that kind of shots, if I can serve like that, you know, and be so relaxed, maybe I would get the same attention, you know. I don't have any problems with that."