TennisSection previews the 2021 Rotterdam Open as Borna Coric faces Marton Fucsovics in the Semi-Finals on Saturday, March 6th, 2021.
This is sure to be a thrilling match between two top 60 players in the world rankings. They have both gotten off to inconsistent starts in 2021 and will each be thrilled to have the chance to make their first ATP Final of the year. This has all the makings of a very close and exciting match, will it be Borna Coric (4/6) advancing to the Final to face either Stefanos Tsitsipas or Andrey Rublev? Or can the Hungarian Qualifier Fucsovics (6/5) causing the minor upset?
Borna Coric is currently ranked #26 and is hoping to build on his outstanding 2020 season this year. After a disappointing start to the year with a Second Round loss to Mackenzie McDonald he has rebounded nicely, playing some outstanding tennis here in Rotterdam. He has gotten to this stage without dropping a set, with comprehensive wins over Botic van de Zandschulp and Dusan Lajovic in the first two rounds, and overcoming former top 5 player Kei Nishikori in two tight tiebreakers in the Quarter-Finals. He has played his usual controlled brand of tennis, with solid defense and hardly giving anything away. When he is in form he is very difficult to beat as not many players are able to hit through him consistently given his elite movement. He will enter this match as the favorite, can he continue his rich vein of form and advance to the Final?
Marton Fucsovics had to qualify for this event, something he did with relative ease. However his First Round match was anything but easy, needing three extremely tight tie-break sets to defeat the huge-serving Reilly Opelka. He showed remarkable composure during that match being down numerous times and will have taken a lot of confidence from it. It has been smooth sailing since, with straight sets victories over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Tommy Paul. Like Coric, he has gotten off to a slow start in 2021, with early losses in Adelaide and at the Australian Open. He plays a very attacking style of tennis, with a big serve and groundstrokes. If he is serving well he will be very tough to beat on this surface but is going to be severely tested against one of the game’s best returners. Can he continue his fantastic run here in his quest to return to the top 30 in the rankings?
These two players have met three times before on the ATP Tour with Coric winning on each occasion and leading the head to head series 3-0. Two of those matches were on the same indoor hard courts so that will give him a psychological advantage. They last faced each other at the 2020 Paris Indoors Masters event, with Coric winning in straight sets, 7-6, 6-1. The two players have heavily contrasting styles and is a bit of “attack vs defense”. Both of these players have the ability to defeat anyone in the world on a good day, so it is set to be a fascinating clash.
While Fucsovics is a bit of an enigma and is capable of some outstanding tennis, I don’t see him having enough to beat Coric here. He has played a lot of tennis this week and fatigue must be starting to be a factor here. Coric is also seemingly at his best and I think that his defense will eventually frustrate the big Hungarian and wear him down. The Hungarian is sometimes hard to predict and has the tools to win here however the smart money is on the Croatian #1.
Free Tennis Preview and Prediction: Borna Coric to win (4/6)
