Borna Coric scored the biggest victory of his career on Sunday, defeating Roger Federer 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 6-2 to win the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany.
Federer was attempting to win his 10th career title in Halle, as well as his 99th career title overall.
Coric Dominates Third Set
Coric held his own in the first set against Federer before fending off two set points. The 21-year-old Croatian would ultimately win the 57 minute set in a tiebreak.
Federer fought back in the second set, however, breaking in the eighth game in order to take command on the way to a comfortable 6-3 margin, tying the match at one set each.
But Coric had little trouble in the third set. After five straight holds, Coric was able to break Federer in the sixth game, then broke again in the final game to take the championship.
The victory gave Coric his second career ATP title and moved him up to the No. 21 world ranking, the highest he has achieved in his career.
For Federer, the loss ended a 20-match winning streak on grass, and was his first loss on the surface this season. The 36-year-old Swiss legend had won a grass-court title the previous week in Stuttgart.
“I’m definitely going to leave with my head high, thinking it’s been a good run in Stuttgart and Halle,” Federer said after the match. “Borna did a good job, he was better in the important moments and extremely consistent. He deserved to win.”
Federer Loses World’s Top Spot, Still No. 1 at Wimbledon
The loss had other consequences for Federer. Because he failed to defend his points from last season, when he won the Halle tournament, he fell back behind rival Rafael Nadal in the world rankings. Federer remains No. 2 in the world, 50 points behind Nadal and about 3,000 points ahead of Alexander Zverev, the world No. 3.
Despite the shakeup in the rankings, Federer will go into Wimbledon as the No. 1 seed, thanks to the fact that the tournament uses a surface-specific seeding formula.
A single loss in Halle won’t be enough to threaten Federer’s standing as the favorite heading into Wimbledon, either. According to Ladbrokes, Roger is a 7/4 pick to win his ninth Wimbledon title and his 21st overall Grand Slam singles championship.
Nadal (13/2) is among Federer’s chief rivals, but oddsmakers are pegging Novak Djokovic (11/2) as presenting the stiffest challenge, despite his struggles so far this season. Marin Cilic (7/1) is also expected to be in the mix.
After scoring wins over both Federer and Zverev in Halle, some bettors might look to Coric as a potential dark horse to contend for his first Grand Slam title. But Coric has never advanced past the second round in three appearances in Wimbledon’s main draw, so he’s still seen as a 40/1 outsider.
Other potential contenders include Nick Kyrgios (14/1), Zverev (16/1), and Milos Raonic (18/1).
