Borna Coric showed his class after beating Dominic Thiem in a Davis Cup match as he called the Austrian «a great champion» and tipped the 2020 US Open champion to «I’ll be back in the top-10 soon.» On Sunday, Coric defeated Thiem 7-6(3) 6-2 to secure the third and decisive point for Croatia in their Davis Cup qualifying tie against Austria.
Thiem, who was out for 10 months before returning from a wrist injury last March, is now ranked 96th as he has yet to rediscover his best game since returning. «It is always a privilege to share the court with (a) great champion of our sport @domithiem.
I’m sure Domi will be back in the top 10 soon,» Coric wrote on his Instagram story.
Coric on beating Thiem
On the first day of their tie, Croatia took a 2-0 lead after Coric beat Dennis Novak and Borna Gojo beat Thiem, respectively.
In the doubles match, where the Croats were the heavy favorites to win, the Austrians Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler pulled off a shock victory over Ivan Dodig and Nikola Mektic to keep the Austrians alive. But in the fourth match, Coric defeated Thiem to end Austria’s hopes of beating Croatia.
“It wasn’t easy, but I knew that this is the Davis Cup, this is tennis and that anything can happen. He was ready after the doubles match. I was quite nervous, but I had time to prepare for the match. I went out on the court and today I was playing some great tennis,» Coric said, according to the Davis Cup website.
It was the sixth meeting between the two, as Coric and Thiem are now 3-3 in their head-to-head. «I enjoyed the fight, it was great. It was great to play in front of the home crowd. I was very happy with the way I was playing on the big points. I was very aggressive so I’m very happy with the win.» ,» Coric said.
