Teenager Coric stuns Nadal

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RafaelNadal

The highly rated 17-year-old Croat, who spent time training with Nadal last year, was a deserved 6-2 7-6 (7-4) victor over the 14-time grand slam winner on Friday.

Nadal announced his withdrawal from next week's ATP Paris Masters earlier on Friday, citing personal reasons, and the world number three went on to confirm after his defeat to Coric that he will miss the remainder of the season as he undergoes appendicitis surgery.

He was certainly off-colour in the first set of this quarter-final, where the fearless Coric was completely dominant.

Wildcard Coric faced something like the challenge he might have anticipated in the second set, but played a near-flawless tie-break to secure a famous triumph.

A netted regulation forehand saw Nadal broken to 15 in the opening game of the match, and that set the tone for a difficult evening for the legendary Spaniard.

Nadal had racked up 12 unforced errors by the fourth game of the opener, where he took the Coric serve to deuce before producing the first of two horribly shanked shots that threatened the arena roof.

When Nadal netted a backhand he slipped to 0-5, but he avoided the embarrassment of a 'bagel' when Coric missed a forehand running in via the net cord to be broken back.

Nadal held and took the youngster to deuce but an ace followed by an unreturned serve closed out the first set.

A more even contest developed thereafter, with Nadal exchanging ferocious groundstrokes to look something like his old self.

Coric remained unbowed, though, and showed fantastic temperament to fire down an ace at break-point down with the score 3-4.

Neither player was able to find a way through on the other's serve, leaving Coric to display further exceptional shot selection and execution in a tie-break that ensured the apprentice booked a semi-final place at the master's expense.

Nadal’s long-time rival Roger Federer delighted his hometown fans with a high-quality 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 win over Grigor Dimitrov.

A year on from beating the Bulgarian in their first-ever meeting at the same venue, Federer saved three set points on his own serve before securing a ninth consecutive tie-break success on the ATP Tour.

The 33-year-old’s adoring public were treated to the full repertoire after he took his fifth break-point opportunity to go 2-0 up in the second set. Dimitrov was rarely given an opening thereafter and Federer retains a chance of usurping Novak Djokovic as world number one before the end of the year.

Djokovic and Federer are already safely qualified for the ATP World Tour Finals next month but, along with fellow Wimbledon semi-finalist Dimitrov, Canada’s Milos Raonic suffered a blow to his chances of securing one of the coveted eight slots in going down 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 6-4 to in-form Belgian David Goffin. Since bowing out of the US Open at the fourth-round stage, Goffin is unbeaten in 15 matches and faces Coric next.

Coric’s big-serving compatriot Ivo Karlovic is up next for Federer after overpowering Benjamin Becker 6-4 6-4.

Author(s)
Dom Farrell Photo

Dom is the senior content producer for Sporting News UK.