Krajinovic Fights Back To Beat Coric In Budapest

Qualifier Filip Krajinovic broke down the serve of second-seeded Croatian Borna Coric on Friday in a 6-4, 7-5 victory to book his place in the Hungarian Open semi-finals.

Krajinovic fought back from a 2-4 deficit in the first set, at a point when Coric had lost just three of his service points in as many games. The 27-year-old saved three set points on serve at 4-5 in the second set, prior to breaking Coric in the next game.

The Serbian will now prepare to contest his first ATP Tour semi-final since February 2018 at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, against France’s Pierre-Hugues Herbert, who was a 6-3, 6-4 victor over Hungarian wild card Attila Balazs in Budapest. In November 2017, Krajinovic reached the Rolex Paris Masters final (l. to Sock).

“I’m really proud of myself to play the match that I played. It’s never easy to play in front of the home crowd. They were supporting him from the first until the last point,” Herbert said. “He was playing actually some great tennis this week, so I expected a tough match. That’s what it was.”

Later in the day, Italian Matteo Berrettini advanced to his third ATP Tour semi-final by beating Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 in one hour and 52 minutes. He now plays fifth-seeded Serbian Laslo Djere, the Rio Open presented by Claro champion in February, who defeated fourth-seeded Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 in one hour and 45 minutes.