Cincinnati (AFP)
Croatian Borna Coric, ranked 152nd in the world, and French women’s 35th seed Caroline Garcia achieved the surprise by winning the Cincinnati Tennis Championships at the expense of Greek seventh seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and Czech expert Petra Kvitova, by defeating them 7-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6- 4 in a row.
Unlike Garcia, who has previously won two titles in the thousand tournaments for the women and is currently considered one of the best performing players, the most optimistic did not expect Coric to reach this stage, and win his first title in the thousand-point tournament for the Masters, especially since he returned to the courts in March after an absence For a year due to a shoulder injury.
The 25-year-old Croatian entered history as the lowest-ranked player to win the title of one of the thousand-point tournaments for the Masters in which he played one final match previously, and it was in Shanghai in 2018, when he lost to Serbian Novak Djokovic, who missed Cincinnati due to his failure to receive an anti-virus vaccine. corona.
Coric commented on the achievement of winning the most important title in his career, which previously witnessed him crowning him only twice, in 2017 in Marrakech and 2018 in Halle, saying, “Frankly, I can’t find the words. The level, it was not in my mind, and of course, I am very happy.”
Coric surpassed the achievement of Spaniard Roberto Carretero, who was ranked 143 in the world, when he won the Hamburg Masters in 1996, but this matter was only achieved by hard work, which “put my body under great pressure throughout this week, I entered the tournament against the background of a lot, a lot of Exercise classes.
These training sessions resulted in a first heavy surprise that led to his ousting of Spaniard Rafael Nadal in the second round, followed by the elimination of Britain’s Cameron Nouri and Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, leading to his downfall of Tsitsipas in the final, depriving the Greek of his third title in the thousand-point Masters tournaments out of six Final matches.
The 24-year-old, who won this season in the Monte Carlo Masters Tournament for the second year in a row, seemed on his way to an easy victory when he advanced in the first set 4-1, but Coric rebounded and returned from afar to impose a 4-4 tie before dragging his opponent into a tiebreak that decided it The Croatian was clean, then imposed complete dominance on the second set, deciding the confrontation in two hours.
The Croatian won his second victory over Tsitsipas out of three matches between them, “withdrawing from the first in 2018 in Rome for the Masters, and then winning the second in five sets during the third round of the Flushing Meadows Championship in 2020”.
For her part, Garcia crowned her third title in the 2000 tournaments in its previous and current formats, and became the first player in the history of these tournaments to be crowned champions after rising from the qualifiers, with a fairly easy victory over Kvitova 6-2 6-4.
The 28-year-old Frenchman needed one hour and 42 minutes to win her tenth title in total, the second in her last three participations, and the third this season and in the thousand sessions in which she had previously won two titles, in 2017 in Wuhan and Beijing, China.
“What an amazing week, it’s hard to believe I’m here in front of you,” said Garcia, after her 27th win since June, as she lifted the tournament trophy.
Garcia, who eliminated three players from among the top 10 on her way to the title, namely Greece’s Maria Sakkari, third, American Jessica Pegula, eighth, and Belarusian Arina Sabalenka, seventh, imposed her advantage over her Czech opponent, who won the Wimbledon titles twice (2011 and 2014).
The Frenchwoman won the first set quite easily, breaking Kvitova’s serve twice out of three chances, while the 32-year-old Czech failed to translate any of the four chances she got to grab a game on the French’s serve.
With 7 aces and saving her again four chances for Kvitova to grab a game on her serve, Garcia settled the second set thanks to one break of the Czech’s serve, achieving her fourth victory over the latter out of nine encounters between them.
Kvitova, who reaches the final of this tournament for the first time in her career, said, “It was a difficult week, but a beautiful one for me. I am happy to be here. I played in Cincinnati 11 times, and finally reached the final.”
Garcia deprived her Czech opponent, ranked 28 in the world, from winning her ninth title in one of the 1,000 tournaments, the last of which was in March in Doha, and the 30th in her career out of 40 final matches she played during her career, an achievement that only five current players have reached, the American legend Serena Williams and her sister. Venus, Romanian Simona Halep, Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova and Belarusian Victoria Azarenka.