Coric Leads #NextGenATP Trio Into QFs

Borna Coric led three #NextGenATP players into the quarter-finals of the Winston-Salem Open Wednesday, in the process handing two-time champion John Isner his first defeat at the event. Coric, who on Monday slipped to fourth in the Emirates ATP Race To Milan behind Jared Donaldson, will move back ahead of the American after reaching his first quarter-final since his strong run to the last eight at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid, where he took out then-World No. 1 Andy Murray.

The 20-year-old Croatian claimed three breaks of serve against 6’ 10” Isner, who also dropped serve three times in his opening win Tuesday over Russian Andrey Kuznetsov. World No. 62 Coric will next meet German Jan-Lennard Struff, who reached his first quarter-final since Munich with a tough 6-3, 6-7(3), 7-6(3) win over Italian veteran Andreas Seppi.

 Korean Hyeon Chung and American Taylor Fritz are the other #NextGenATP Finals contenders who will appear in Thursday’s quarter-finals. Chung advanced when French veteran and former finalist Julien Benneteau retired early in the second set with an elbow injury. Currently eighth in the Emirates ATP Race to Milan, Chung will play Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Damir Dzumhur after the 25-year-old beat Argentine veteran Horacio Zeballos 7-5, 6-3.

Fritz, who at 14th in the Race has much work to do to qualify for Milan, toughed out a 7-6(3), 7-6(5) win over Italian veteran Paolo Lorenzi. Fritz converted all three break chances he earned, but also dropped serve three times himself.

“I did a really good job taking advantage of the chances on his serve to break.,” Fritz said. “My service games were a little tougher than i wanted them to be. He made some adjustments and had we gone to a third set I felt I would have been in a lot of trouble.”