Coric Solid On Serve In Paris; Lopez To Play Nadal
Borna Coric, the No. 15 seed, knuckled down to beat Hungarian qualifier Marton Fucsovics for the third time on Monday at the Rolex Paris Masters.
The Croatian produced a quality serving performance to win 7-6(5), 6-1 in one hour and 46 minutes for a place in the second round where he’ll meet Australian Jordan Thompson or Federico Delbonis of Argentina. Coric won 35 of his 48 first-service points.
[WATCH LIVE 1]“It was not an easy match and every time we have played it’s been very tough,” said Coric, in a post-match interview. “It’s always been a very physical match. In the tie-break, I went for my shots that maybe weren’t logical, but it paid off. In the second set, I started to play much better and played at quite a high level at the end. I played one bad game at 2-1 in the first set, when I missed two first serves, but pretty much the rest of the time I was serving huge. I feel like I’m starting to play some good tennis.”
After an early exchange of service breaks, Fucsovics locked in and led 3/0 in the tie-break before a concentration lapse let Coric back into their third ATP Head2Head meeting. Fucsovics hit a backhand long to end the 62-minute opener, then Coric raced to a 3-0 lead in the second set en route to his 16th match win of the 2020 season.
World No. 24 Coric recently reached the St. Petersburg Open final (l. to Rublev) for the second straight year. Fucsovics drops to a 14-10 match record in 2020.
Elsewhere, 39-year-old Feliciano Lopez set up a second-round match against fellow Spaniard and World No. 2 Rafael Nadal after a 7-6(11), 6-1 win over Filip Krajinovic of Serbia. Lopez saved six set points at 3/6, 6/7, 8/9 and 10/11 in the first-set tie-break.