Borna Ćorić has advanced to the quarterfinal of the ATP tournament in Halle!  

Croatia’s best tennis player Borna Ćorić advanced to the quarterfinal of the ATP tournament in Halle, and is hoping to defend the title he won last year, reports Gol.hr on June 19, 2019. 

After defeating Spaniard Jaume Munar 7-6 (2) 6-3, Ćorić defeated Portuguese player Joao Sousa 7-6 (4), 5-7, 7-6 (4 ) to continue his winning streak in Halle.

Recall, last year Ćorić secured five wins (Alexander Zverev, Nikoloz Basilasvili, Andreas Seppi, Roberto Bautista Agut, Roger Federer) to win his second career title. The winning series continued against Munar, and now against Sousa. In the quarterfinal, Ćorić will play against Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert.

It was an exhausting match that lasted almost three hours and was solved in the thirteenth game of the third set. In the first set, the 30-year-old Portuguese player took the lead first. At 3-2 he had a break; however, Ćorić returned the lost service in the next game to equalize at 4-4. The first set came to the thirteenth game. Sousa had a mini break and led 2-0. Ćorić equalized at 2-2 and led 5-3. Sousa decreased his lead to 5-4, though Ćorić managed to lead 7-4 to win the first set.

In the second set, Ćorić had two break points at 2-0, though Sousa saved them and took the game to 5-5. Unfortunately, in the eleventh game, Sousa took Borna’s service and won the second set.

The third set was equal and the game fell to a tie break. Sousa led 3-1 with a mini-break, though a great series by Ćorić secured him six points, and Sousa just one.

In the quarterfinal, Ćorić awaits the 43rd best tennis player in the world, Pierre-Hugues Herbert, who in the 2nd round was better than Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4.

Ćorić and the 28-year-old French player have met four times so far, and each player has two wins. Ćorić won the last two games - this year in Monte Carlo and Madrid in 2017. Herbert was better in the Wimbledon qualifiers in 2014 and a year earlier at the Yokohama Challenger.

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page.