Borna Coric further delays his comeback, withdraws from Montpellier

• Tennis News
• ATP Tennis

Former world No. 12 Borna Coric won't be making his comeback in Montpellier as he has withdrawn from the French ATP 250 event. Coric, who hasn't played since last March, underwent a shoulder surgery last May. Coric, now ranked at No.

84 in the world, was the first player to arrive in Australia. After two weeks of practice at Melbourne Park, Coric realized he wasn't quite ready to make his comeback "Hey guys! Unfortunately my shoulder is not quite ready to compete over five sets, therefore my team and I have made the difficult decision to withdraw from the Australian Open," Coric announced in an Instagram post.

"I'm extremely close to being 100% percent and arrived in Australia with every intention of making my comeback, but I want to make sure i do not rush anything at the last stage in my recovery process. Thank you for your support."

Coric won't be returning to Montpellier

Coric made back-to-back Montpellier appearances in 2016 and 2017.

Coric didn't impress in his first two Montpellier appearance as he picked up back-to-back first round exits at the tournament. Meanwhile, world No. 49 James Duckworth has withdrawn from Dallas and Pune. Duckworth made the Pune semifinal in 2020 before losing to Egor Gerasimov.

Duckworth has no previous appearances in Dallas since the tournament is set to hold its inaugural edition. Recently, Australian tennis legend Lleyton Hewitt spoke about how impressed he was by Duckworth's rapid improvement.

"He’s always had setbacks throughout his career. So I think for him to keep bouncing back and responding in the way he has, is something we’re all extremely proud of,” Hewitt said of Duckworth. “He does absolutely everything right in terms of his body and professionalism that he brings to the table every single day on the practice court or the match court.

So it’s great he’s getting the success now and the body is holding up, as well, which is really important."