Match Stats/Report - Coric vs Tsitsipas, Cincinnati final, 2022

Waspsting

Hall of Fame
Borna Coric beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6(0), 6-2 in the Cincinnati final, 2022 on hard court

Coric was unseeded, ranked 152 and gained entry to the event with a protected ranking. He beat 5 seeded players in winning the title. Tsitsipas was seeded 4 and had won Monte Carlo earlier in the year

Coric won 79 points, Tsitsipas 61

Serve Stats
Coric...
- 1st serve percentage (43/72) 60%
- 1st serve points won (36/43) 84%
- 2nd serve points won (14/29) 48%
- Aces 8 (1 second serve, 1 not clean)
- Double Faults 2
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (25/72) 35%

Tsitsipas...
- 1st serve percentage (44/68) 65%
- 1st serve points won (28/44) 64%
- 2nd serve points won (11/24) 46%
- Aces 6
- Double Faults 4
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (18/68) 26%

Serve Pattern
Coric served...
- to FH 33%
- to BH 67%

Tsitsipas served...
- to FH 50%
- to BH 48%
- to Body 2%

Return Stats
Coric made...
- 46 (23 FH, 23 BH)
- 1 Winner (1 FH)
- 12 Errors, comprising...
- 7 Unforced (3 FH, 4 BH)
- 5 Forced (4 FH, 1 BH)
- Return Rate (46/54) 72%

Tsitsipas made...
- 45 (19 FH, 26 BH), including 7 runaround FHs
- 17 Errors, comprising...
- 7 Unforced (2 FH, 5 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 10 Forced (3 FH, 7 BH)
- Return Rate (45/70) 64%

Break Points
Coric 3/12 (5 games)
Tsitsipas 1/7 (3 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding aces)
Coric 22 (10 FH, 9 BH, 2 OH, 1 Back-to-Net BH)
Tsitsipas 19 (9 FH, 4 FHV, 3 BHV, 3 OH)

Coric's FHs - 1 cc return pass, 3 dtl, 2 inside-out, 2 inside-in, 1 longline, 1 drop shot at net
- BHs - 4 cc (2 passes - 1 at net), 4 dtl, 1 running-down-drop-shot cc pass at net

- 1 OHs were on the bounce (1 from baseline)
- the Back-to-Net BH was a lob

Tsitsipas' FHs - 3 cc (1 pass), 1 cc/inside-in, 2 inside-out, 1 inside-in, 1 longline pass, 1 drop shot

- 7 from serve-volley points -
- 3 first volleys (1 FHV, 1 BHV, 1 OH)
- 4 second volleys (3 FHV, 1 BHV

Errors (excluding returns and serves)
Coric 22
- 16 Unforced (13 FH, 2 BH, 1 FHV)
- 6 Forced (4 FH, 2 BH)... with 1 BH running-down-drop-shot at net
Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 45.6

Tsitsipas 28
- 28 Unforced (10 FH, 15 BH, 3 FHV)
Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 43.9

(Note 1: all half-volleys refer to such shots played at net. Half -volleys played from other parts of the court are included within relevant groundstroke counts)

(Note 2: The 'Unforced Error Forcefulness Index is a measure of how aggressive of intent the average UE made was. 60 is maximum, 20 is minimum. This match has been scored using a four point scale - 2 defensive, 4 neutral, 5 attacking, 6 winner attempt)

Net Points & Serve-Volley
Coric was...
- 6/11 (55%) at net, including...
- 0/1 serve-volleying, a 2nd serve
---
- 2/3 (67%) forced back

Tsitsipas was...
- 14/22 (64%) at net, including...
- 7/11 (64%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 5/9 (56%) off 1st serve and...
- 2/2 off 2nd serve

Match Report
So poor from Tsitsipas that one can’t help wonder if he threw the match. He has his moments early on, but plays with so little effort, and makes such errors, including during crucial passages like the tiebreak, that it’s a possibility. Coric on other side is solid, but it seems like he’s playing someone who’d rather be somewhere else. Court is normal

In particular, the high number of mishits are striking. To see Tsis frame and mishit and whiff so many balls, would think it was a bad bouncing grass court. BH has 0 winners, match high 15 UEs with any drive that reaches service line being ‘good’ from him, to go with a floaty slice that’s more like most players’ defensive ‘get’ than a slice

There’s lack of effort in his movement so that when a random point is played with just normal, hustling movement, it stands out. He has 0 FEs because anything attacking from Coric goes for a winner. In small few cases, balls that’d be marked a UE if he moved properly for them go through for a winner

‘Drop shots’ don’t even force Coric to net. Its more accurate description to call them ‘invitation to rip groundstroke from service line’ than ‘drop shots’

Everyone has bad days. This goes into consider-fining-for-lack-of-effort and investigate-betting-patterns bad. No overt signs of physical trouble to account for it

Coric with a 22 winners, 16 UEs showing, to go with healthy 35% unreturned serves. He plays a good match, but those are flattering numbers. Returning well (handling tough serves from well-back position) is best part of it. BH with very exceptional 9 winners, 2 UEs is bolstered by shortcomings in Tsis’, but he does choose to be aggressive with it

Unreturned serves - Coric 35%, Tsis 26%, comprising…
Aces - Coric 8, Tsis 6
Return FEs drawn - Coric 10, Tsis 5
Return UEs drawn - both 7

Tsis with better serve, Coric returning well (and better than Tsis)

Tsis’ first serve better placed and more powerful. Coric keeps a well-back position to return. Handles the pace and makes the tough returns with fair authority (that is, not leaving easy third ball to attack). Low return FEs for Coric. That’s with Tsis augmenting serve with 11 serve-volleys (Coric does so once, a second serve point that he loses)

After a good start of making difficult returns, Tsis seems to miss every not-easy return for rest of match. Few mishits to routine returns too. One of Coric’s aces is a non-clean ‘whiff’that Tsis just grazes. The ball would have been marked a UE had he made proper contact, it’s as routine a return as can be

And Tsis double faulting more (4 or 17% of second serves, to Coric’s 2 or 7%), including to open the tiebreak

Coming away with 35% unreturned is a bonus for Coric. He’s usually in swing zone with his first serve, with just decent power on first serves. He has done well to keep Tsis’ freebies down to 26% though
Coric plays a solid baseline game of keeping ball in play firmly and taking it from there. Tsis comes to net and serve-volleys significantly. From the baseline, his BH is awful in all ways, but FHs a match for Coric

Neutral UEs - Coric 10, Tsis 20

FHs - Coric 10 winners, 13 UEs, Tsis 9 winners, 10 UEs
BHs - Coric 9 winners, 2 UEs, Tsis 15 UEs

Neutral UEs is backbone of the kind of action on show. Big gap is discredit to Tsis’ sloppiness, not credit to Coric being overly rock like. And its almost all down to BHs

Horrendous BH showing from Tsis. Leaving aside all the errors, they don’t long in coming, the ones he makes are short and/or feeble and the number of mishits he makes is baffling for a hard court. He’s not aggressive with it and just misses routine cc shots. To his credit, Coric isn’t content to just let Tsis sink himself and isn’t slow to take on weaker offerings. He’s got 4 dtl winners and 2 cc in baseline rallies

Ironically, probably the best BH Tsis hits - a hard, swiped, deep cc shot - is dispatched dtl for winner
Good contest of the FH though, both with sturdy stock play and both able to finish with strong shots
 

Waspsting

Hall of Fame
Movement is average for both players (with Tsis also making little effort at times). Tsis has 0 FEs mostly because most attacking shots from Coric go through for winners. Coric isn’t fleet either. Tsis at times making little or no effort to defend, which has hand in inflating Coric’s winners to 22

Tsis serve-volleying 11 times and at net 22. Wins 64% both rallying forward and serve-volleying
He’s got 10 volley winners, 3 UEs
Coric has 5 passing winners, 4 FEs on the pass

Some nice volleying from Tsis. Early on, he’s able to come in without much risk. Places volleys away from Coric and looks good of form. That’s a very good passing yield for Coric too, given not-good looks so a good contest

The 1 point that sets the sky alight is very similar to a famous 1 that was played between Roger Federer and Andre Agassi in Dubai 2005, though less intense. Decent drop shot by Tsis, which he follows to net is met by a nicely angled, running-down-drop-shot shot by Coric. Tsis makes the wide, low volley to slow ball and for finale, Coric running back flicks the ball with his back to net for a lob winner

Match Progression
Its all Tsis at the start as he holds to love (third ball FH inside-out winner and 2 strong net points) and breaks to 15 (BHV winner after easily working way to net and FH inside-out winner after playing second fiddle in rally) for 2-0. He does strike the first of his bad drop shots for the match in the break game also, but Cor misses putaway FH from mid-court. Couple of winning FHs game after to hold for 3-0

Coric settles in to hold comfily from there and breaks back fro 3-4 in game where Tsis serve-volleys regularly. Bad, plonky volley gets him passed from at net Coric to start the game, a FH cc return does the same awhile later and to finish, Tsis misses third ball FH inside-out

Tough, 16 point game to maintain equality, saving 3 break points along the way. Strong serves do for 2 of the points (1 unreturned, 1 leading to easy finish at net), a Tsis makes meal of routine BH cc on the other. Coric complains about Tsis not playing to servers pace, but Chair opines that Tsis is playing at regular pace (he is but Coric isn’t overly fast and the situation is product of Tsis breaking with etiquette of playing to servers pace). Later on Tsis aims a pass at Coric, narrowly missing him

Tsis’ strangeness starts around here and continues rest of match. Doesn’t move as Coric hits a BH dtl winner next game and Coric adds another, blistering one from routine position
Tsis all but whiffs a routine return that’s been marked a non-clean ace game after. Saves a break point with an ace in holding for 6-5 and its into the tiebreak soon after

Tsis double faults to open it. And shows a weird lack of effort after that
He has no chances against a powerful FH dtl winner that puts him down 4-0, but simply bails on chasing a BH cc winner point after. No move as ace goes by after that and its done 7-0 after that

Coric is down 0-40 in opening game of second set. Tsis misses routine returns to let him off the hook
Back-to-net, flick BH lob winner mentioned earlier starts next game, which Tsis holds and next go around, he’s taken to 12 points, and turns to serve-volleying to get him hold again for 2-2

Doesn’t win another game
Bad one to be broken with 2 double faults (including on break point) and 2 FHV UEs (1 easy, 1 reaction type), with Coric blazing a BH dtl winner against the best BH cc Tsis hits all match to help

He’s only down 1 break but completely tanks first 2 points next game, allowing BH winners that are readily reachable. The game eventually goes on for 12 points, though there are no break points. Sans the 2 throwaway points, good chance of a break with all other things remaining equal

And a poor, soft errors game to be broken again and wrap up the match

Summing up, solid showing from Coric. His consistency in returning a good serve from well-back is commendable, some good passing and no shortcomings in his performance

More than that though is a weirdly lame display from Tsitsipas, who after a bright start, intermittently goes off with double faults, mishits, routine errors off the BH and the return, poor drop shots, making no effort to defend. To extent of looking like a tank job
 

7thKingSlam

New User
Ah, Tsitsipas vs Coric; one of the rivalries of all time. This was around the start of Tsitsipas’s big decline imo… those Alcaraz losses during clay season in 2022 just seemed to further break him after the RG2021 final and USO2021 losses started the process the year before. I know he made the AO2023 final but that was with a pretty depleted field.

As for this rivalry directly, funny story: it was like 12:30 AM and I’d just finished watching some US Open match, decided to switch over to see Tsitsipas finish Coric off as he was up 5-1 in the 4th set. Figured I’d watch the last few minutes then go up to bed. Tsitsipas put on one of the single worst choke jobs I’ve ever seen.

Sure, Zverev in the final of that same tournament may have been worse just because it was a final, but I’ve never seen someone blow as many opportunities as Tsitsipas. He was up 15-40/0-40 multiple times and just kept shanking then screaming at his father, who left the court and came back later. I watched him choke away the whole 4th set then went to bed expecting to wake up and see he lost the 5th set like 1-6. To give him some credit, Tsitsipas managed to take the 5th to 5-7 but lost.

I think that whole tournament really summed up why players born in the 90s only won 2 slams. You can’t blame the big 4 for all of their failures, these guys were mental midgets and their games were all over the place. That includes Thiem, one of my favorite players ever. As much as I love his game and respect how well he played Djokovic/Nadal for a few years there, the guy was grossly unclutch in big finals.

US Open 2020 was a tournament where we saw one of the worst (in terms of sheer quality) major finals ever played between Thiem and Zverev, we saw Zverev go down 2 sets to PCB out of sheer nerves, saw Medvedev self-destruct in the SF against Thiem, and a complete Tsitsipas crash-out.
 

jl809

Legend
Match Report
So poor from Tsitsipas that one can’t help wonder if he threw the match. He has his moments early on, but plays with so little effort, and makes such errors, including during crucial passages like the tiebreak, that it’s a possibility
goodness me! I need to give this a watch
 
Top