Croatia’s Borna Coric will face top seed Carlos Alcaraz in the Semi-finals of the Madrid Open
World No.1 Carlos Alcaraz has his eyes set on winning his fourth ATP title of the season. He has already won the Argentina Open, the Indian Wells Masters and the Barcelona Open earlier this year and is determined to win another trophy on home soil.
The Spaniard has been in sublime touch and has dropped only one set so far at the Madrid Open. He began his campaign with a hard-fought win against Emil Ruusuvuori and has brushed aside all his opponents since then. Alcaraz defeated seeded players Grigor Dimitrov (26), Alexander Zverev (13), Karen Khachanov (10) in his previous rounds to progress to the Semi-finals of the tournament.
Borna Coric has been in very poor form of late and suffered first-round exits in all of his previous four tournaments – Srpska Open, Monte-Carlo Masters, the Miami Open and the Indian Wells Masters. His best performance so far this year came at the Dubai Tennis Championships, where he reached the Quarter-finals but eventually lost to No.3 seed Daniil Medvedev. Coric is yet to win any silverware this season and he is desperate to turn things around in Madrid.
The 26-year-old is seeded No.17 at the Madrid Open and has lived up to expectations so far. Coric received a bye in the first round thanks to his superior seeding and defeated France’s Hugo Gaston in his first match of the tournament. He followed it up with an impressive 7-6, 6-3 victory against No.12 seed Hubert Hurkacz.
In the Round of 16, Coric came back from a set down to get the better of 29th seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and then defeated Daniel Altmaier 6-3, 6-3 to set up a Semi-final clash against top seed Carlos Alcaraz.
Date – Friday, 5th May
Court Type – Clay outdoor surface
Telecast – Tennis Channel
Start Time – 4:30 pm IST
Location – Madrid, Spain
Match details – Semi-final
Alcaraz and Coric have never played each other before on the ATP tour. This is the first professional head to head clash between the two players. Alcaraz is the clear favourite going into this match both in terms of form and rankings. It will be a tough ask for Coric in this encounter, but he is expected to pose a tough challenge. However, we predict the top seed from Spain to see off the Croatian’s challenge and win in straight sets.
More Tennis news
Follow our dedicated Tennis page for instant Tennis news and updates