The 6th final at the ATP 1000 tournament and the 22nd in his career did not become a happy ending for him. Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Although at the beginning of the match the Greek tennis player showed that he was determined to win the title and go with the best attitude to the US Open, but Borna Coric managed to outmaneuver him and take a victory from 2-0 sets and a trophy at the Cincinnati Masters.

After three appearances in the semi-finals of the tournament, the Greek champion failed to win his first trophy in this tournament and the 3rd of his career (both in Monte Carlo), knowing about his 16th defeat this year (46-16) and 4th . in six finals he has given (in Toronto in 2018, Madrid in 2019 and Rome in 2022 the previous three).

However, as of yesterday (22.08) he is in 5th place in the world rankings, while he missed the opportunity to move up to 4th place (which would have happened if he had won).

As happened many times in the past, and in today’s match, Tsitsipas failed to properly manage the game from the moment his opponent re-entered the game and took the first game. He didn’t score on his serve, made a lot of unforced errors and didn’t show himself psychologically ready and “fresh” at all, although he pulled away from a big victory over Daniil Medvedev. He was called to play another big match in a short amount of time, after the World No. 1 match, and as it turned out, from one moment to the next, he looked rather tired.

Stay cool 🥵 pic.twitter.com/lZuJCviHZH

— Stefanos Tsitsipas (@steftsitsipas) August 22, 2022

For his part, Borna Coric closed his superb presence at the Cincinnati Masters in the most perfect way by winning the trophy and previously beating Rafa Nadal in the 2nd round, as well as Muzzetti, Bautista-Aguta, Felix-Ozere Aliasim and Cameron Nori.

In his second appearance in the final of the ATP Masters 1000, the Croatian managed to win the title after losing in October 2018 in Shanghai, where he lost to Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-4.

The two finalists met for the third time on the court. Coric came out victorious for the second time, after a sensational 4.5 hour fight in the 3rd round of the US Open 2020. Tsitsipas then led 2-1, but also … 5-1 in the 4th set, nevertheless, Horvat turned everything upside down, turning 1-5 into 7-5, while erasing 6 match points!

Two years earlier, at the 1000 tournament in Rome, the Greek tennis player won after the Croatian retired in Game 5, with the 24-year-old champion leading 4-1.

Race

Tsitsipas started the match well, interrupting… good morning on Coric’s serve. He was leading 3-0 and 4-1 and although he looked like he had the upper hand, he lost focus and rhythm. This fact was fully used by the Croatian, who made his break in the 7th game, and then equalized the score 4-4.

From there, the two players saved the serve and settled the differences in a tie-break, where Coric outperformed his opponent in every way, closing the set 7-6 (Tsitsipas did not score) and taking a 1-0 lead.

Having a better mentality than the Greek champions in the second set, Coric broke down in the 6th game, led 4-2 and then won 6-2 without any problems.

Source: RES-IPE