Borna Coric earned his third straight victory against Stefanos Tsitsipas with a Thursday comeback at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna. Down a set and a break, Coric recovered to claim a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(4) win and advance to the quarter-finals.
The Croatian famously saved six match points to stun the Greek at the 2020 US Open, and while he was never that close to defeat at the ATP 500, he did have his back to the wall when Tsitsipas led by a set and 2-0. After breaking straight back, Coric fought off a break point at 2-3, which sparked a run of 15 straight points on serve that carried into the final set.
Both players fought through deuce to hold early in the decider, with another trade of breaks exchanged midway through the set. From 3-3, there would be no further break points, Coric ultimately taking the tie-break behind a single mini-break.
[ATP APP]
Coric improved to 3-1 in his ATP Head2Head against Tsitsipas, with the Greek's only win coming via an early retirement in Rome 2018. The resurgent Croatian is now 13-3 since the start of Cincinnati, where he beat Tsitsipas 7-6(0), 6-2 in the final. Through to his fourth quarter-final of the season and his second of the month (Tokyo), he will meet fifth seed Hubert Hurkacz on Friday.
Jannik Sinner also advanced to the Vienna quarter-finals on Thursday night with a 7-5, 6-3 win against Francisco Cerundolo. The Italian has not dropped a set this week and lost just five games against Cristian Garin on Wednesday in the first round.
The sixth seed will now seek his first win against Daniil Medvedev in the pair's fourth meeting, their first since a thriller in the 2021 Nitto ATP Finals which was decided by a 10-8 third-set tie-break.
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