WATCH: Borna Coric loses track of the score at match point
No 4 seed Borna Coric defeated Ilya Ivashka 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the semi-finals on his Los Cabos debut but did so without any great celebration.
The reason for this wasn’t modesty so much as confusion.
Coric lost track of the score while serving for the match, clinching the quarter-final at the third attempt.
After winning the point, it took Coric a few moments to realise that the crowds applause was a bit more persistent than it would normally be as he made his way back to the baseline to serve.
A bewildered-looking Coric eventually approached the net and apologised to his opponent, revealing that he had lost track of the score.
Coric will play Stefanos Tsitsipas on Friday in his second tour-level semi-final of the year after making it all the way to the last four on clay at the Mutua Madrid Open in May.
At the Mifel Tennis Open by Telcel Oppo on Thursday, Â Tsitsipas’ perseverance paid off against big-serving Nicolas Jarry.
The tournament’s top seed maintained composure to defeat Nicolas Jarry 6-7(6), 7-6(4), 6-2 in Los Cabos and advance to the ATP 250 hard-court semifinals. Throughout the first two hours and 58 minutes of the match, Tsitsipas had to hold his own against Jarry, who had the upper hand. However, a solid performance in the second set tie-break proved crucial, and the Greek eventually won the match in a relatively comfortable deciding set.
“Sometimes you feel like those kinds of matches are very important for your continuation in a tournament,” said Tsitsipas. “You get to play at a high intensity and a very high level, and it kind of brings the best out of you. I hope to move forwards stronger from this point onwards, to learn from this match, and take away as much as I can.”
Jarry had defeated Tsitsipas in their previous match on the grass in Halle in June with to his powerful serve. On the Pacific coast of Mexico, the Chilean found strong rhythm behind his delivery once more, but in the last set, where Tsitsipas converted both of his break points, he started to flag physically.
“He was serving big, and in important moments where I had the chance to break, he was always coming up with a big serve,” said Tsitsipas.
“It was something that made it a bit difficult. Those moments that I had to convert, I was trying to get behind the ball and the ball was constantly on the line. There isn’t much you can do.”