Eighteen year old lucky loser Borna Coric beat Andy Murray 6-1, 6-3 in the ATP 500 Dubai tournament quarter-finals.
The world No. 84 lost to world No. 350 Fabrice Martin in the qualifying rounds, but benefited when a late withdrawal
meant he was granted a place in the main draw.
Since that stroke of luck, many other things have fallen into place for the teenager. In a draw featuring the likes of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych, Coric was drawn against 72nd ranked Malek Jaziri , who is short of wins this season with a 2-5 record, in his opening round.
Coric had to work hard to win that match
in three sets, and then had to work even harder in his next round against tour veteran Marcos Baghdatis when their match
went into a third set tiebreaker.
In that match, another piece of luck came Coric’s way-Baghdatis was forced to retire at 4-4 in the breaker and Coric was through to the quarter-finals of an ATP event for the second time in his short professional career.
Coric’s hard work was rewarded with a match
against the Australian Open runner up Andy Murray, who has a 9-3 record in Dubai. The match would pit Coric against Murray, the player about whom Coric said he played like at his worst, a comment that drew much criticism from the media and which Coric was forced to issue an apology for.
When Coric made that comment it was in answer to the question what his game was like- he answered like Djokovic at his best, Murray at his worst.
Murray could not have played much worse than he did against Coric in his Dubai defeat. The Scot hit 55 errors to just 15 winners as he went down in 79 minutes.
The teenager must have found it hard to believe his luck when he took the first set 6-1. Luck he deserved. Coric played a steady match from the baseline, his defensive skills better than the famed ones of his opponent, his backhand never wavering while Murray made one error after another. Sound familiar? Djokovic would have been proud to have played as smart and nerveless a match aged 18, not too different from the ones he himself won at the same age.
Coric did not have a great winners-error ratio himself-racking up a tally of 10-21- but the win did not require any aggressive inspiration on behalf of the teen. All it required of him was to be steady from the back of the court, and not get nervous with a win over the No. 3 in his grasp, and the Croatian delivered on both counts.
The win means Coric now has two top three wins in the last six months (the 18 year old beat Rafael Nadal at Basel late last year).
Next up for Coric is six time champion and world No. 2 Roger Federer. Coric will need even more luck to get past the in-form Swiss, but his hard work means he will at least be there to take advantage of any luck that comes his way, and his last three wins all prove he has the ability to make that luck count, too, should he earn it.
Commentary by Christian Deverille
thetennisreview 
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