Looking back now, the amount of ink we spend talking about Borna Coric, a player who at the age of 17 was already making his mark on the professional circuit. We all saw him as a future champion, a tennis player to mark an era, but fate sometimes diverts you from the path for countless reasons. In the case of the Croatian, it has been the injuries that have not given him a break, beyond some mental limitations that perhaps prevented him from making the jump to the top 10 at the time.
But if there is something positive about starting so young, it is that you have as much time ahead as you want. He will turn 26 in November, a season in which no one will rush him anymore, demand that he win Grand Slams or point him out if he loses to someone outside the top 100. The story of overcoming him starts again, from below, from a circuit ATP Challenger where it prevailed this Sunday in the city of Parma. In statements collected hours later by the portal Tennis.net We can see how Borna’s spirit has taken a small step forward, escaping from the martyrdom that kept him unemployed for almost a year due to the operation on his right shoulder.
“The first set I’ve played is the most difficult I’ve played in a long time,” defended the Croatian after beating Elias Ymer 7-6, 6-0. “In the end I was happy with how it all ended, I was able to serve well and I took advantage of my chances. Overall, I’m very happy with the week I’ve had here, as I came to Parma without great expectations. I haven’t been able to get my best tennis in the last few months, but I am super happy to have won another tournament, I am sure that this will now give me confidence for the future”, revealed the man who starts today in the classification three steps from the top200.
OBJECTIVE: TO RETURN TO THE TOP100
That example is enough to understand how far Coric had fallen, who became world No. 12 at Christmas 2018. The last time we saw him lift a professional title dates back to that season, when he made the big splash in the final of the ATP 500 of Halle defeating Roger Federer himself. Those were happy times for one of the pioneers of the #NextGen, a movement created in the 2016 academic year. After being one of the great hopes of the men’s circuit and then falling to the hell of the classification due to injuries, now the one from Zagreb dreams with recovering his best version and planting himself again with the best.
“I feel like my game is slowly coming back, but I still need a little more time. I showed that I can still play a very good level of tennis, luckily my shoulder is holding up with the serve, now the next step is to be able to perform completely without pain, that’s the most important thing”, he acknowledges after some first adaptation that started in March and that have reached their maximum splendor this week in Italy. We will see where he puts his focus in the coming months and if at the end of the course his goals can be ordered to face 2023 from a better starting line.
