Coric Reaches Montpellier QFs

Third seed Borna Coric is up and running at the Open Sud de France – Montpellier.

The Croatian produced a dominant performance on Thursday when he moved past Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech 6-3, 7-5 to reach the quarter-finals at the ATP 250 event.

Coric, who is making his third appearance in Montpellier, was strong on serve throughout the one-hour, 30-minute clash. He did not face a break point and won 79 per cent (34/43) of points behind his first delivery to earn his fifth win of the season.

“In the second set, I just managed to break him and that was the key to the match. I also served very well today,” Coric said during his on-court interview. “I am very happy to be here again today.”

The 26-year-old now leads Rinderknech 2-0 in their ATP Head2Head series and will next meet Maxime Cressy after the American defeated seventh seed Emil Ruusuvuori 6-4, 6-4. If Coric defeats Cressy, he will return to the Top 20 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time since October 2019.

“I think we have never played before,” Coric said when looking ahead to his match against Cressy. “I need to go and watch back some of his matches. I know him but I have never hit with him or played against him. But I know his serve is very, very big, so it is going to be a similar match to today.”

In other action, Frenchman Quentin Halys reached his second tour-level quarter-final when he defeated fifth seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-3, 6-3, while Lorenzo Sonego beat Filip Krajinovic 7-5, 6-1. Halys will next play Arthur Fils, with Sonego taking on Jannik Sinner.