Croatia’s best tennis player Borna Ćorić failed to advance to the quarter-final of the 30th edition of the ATP tournament in Umag after losing to Italy's Salvatore Caruso 2-6, 6-3, 1-6.
Borna Ćorić, as the second seed of the Croatia Open in Umag, was free in the first round of the competition, while after successful qualifications, the Italian tennis player defeated Frenchman Corentin Moutet in the first round with a score of 7-5, 6-0, reports T.portal on July 18, 2019.
This was Ćorić’s first appearance after he pulled out of Wimbledon this year due to a back injury suffered at the tournament in Halle.
The 22-year-old Croatian tennis player started the match poorly. Caruso, who is the 125th player in the world on the ATP ranking, already broke Borna in the first game and once again took his serve to make it 4-0. Ćorić came back for 4-1, but failed to compensate for the two lost serves - and after half an hour of play, the first set went to the 26-year-old Italian.
In the first set, Ćorić had only executed 35 percent of his first serve, made three double faults and 15 unforced errors.
The opening of the second set brought a much better game for Ćorić. Borna immediately broke his opponent to lead 2-0, but Caruso returned the lost serve by equalizing to 2-2. However, Ćorić then won three games in a row, led 5-2 and peacefully equalized for 1-1 in sets.
Unfortunately, Croatia’s best tennis player experienced a new crisis in the third set. Caruso took Borna to lead 3-0. Unfortunately, at the 4-1 result, the Italian once again took Ćorić's serve to reach a considerable 5-1 advantage, and then served for 6-1 and ultimately the win.
Borna Ćorić has played at the Umag tournament four times so far. His best result was advancing to the quarter-final in 2014 and 2015.
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