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The first edition of the Adria Tour took place in Belgrade last weekend, with three top-10 players fighting for the title. In the end, Dominic Thiem stole the honor in front of Filip Krajinovic, lifting the trophy before heading to France for the Ultimate Tennis Showdown.
Borna Coric didn't play the first leg of the Adria Tour in Belgrade, starting the campaign from Zadar in front of the home fans. Borna had reached the semi-final in Rio de Janeiro after a slow start of the season before returning home to Croatia after the coronavirus pandemic, training there and embracing competitive encounters this weekend.
In the first match of Zadar's Adria Tour leg, Borna took down Grigor Dimitrov 4-1, 4-1 in 36 minutes for a dominant victory in the town where he spends a couple of weeks every year. The Bulgarian was far from his best, struggling with some injury and playing way below Belgrade's level last week.
Coric lost six points behind the initial shot, fending off a break opportunity at the beginning of the second set and controlling the pace to wrap up a win in no time at all.
Spraying one error after another, Grigor got broken three times to propel Borna through, hoping for a better performance versus Pedja Krstin later today.
Coric held at 15 with a service winner in game two, earning a break in the next game following a double fault from the Bulgarian. Grigor sent a forehand long in the fourth game and Borna closed the opener with a return winner a few minutes later after a lucky net cord.
Facing a break point in the first game of the second set, Coric landed a service winner to bring the game home, firing another one at 1-1 to remain in front. Dimitrov made another backhand error in the fourth game to give serve away, allowing Borna to seal the deal with a hold at love and top the group standings.
In tonight's match, Coric will face world no. 1 Novak Djokovic, calling the Serb one of the greatest players of all time and hoping to repeat this performance against him. "It was my fifth match in Zadar and I played all of them on a very high level; I like to compete here.
I came to Zadar with a lot of confidence, shaping my game in the last couple of weeks and feeling great in front of the home fans. I hope for another great performance tonight. It will be much harder against Novak Djokovic, one of the greatest players of all time.
He is always the favorite and will be against me tonight; I will try to give my best and repeat what I showed against Dimitrov. The crowd was great and I hope there will be even more people tonight."