Borna Coric reached his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final on Saturday, beating defending champion Roger Federer 6-4, 6-4 at the Rolex Shanghai Masters. Here are 10 things to know about the 21-year-old who denied Federer in the Shanghai semi-finals.

1. Twice an ATP World Tour champion
Coric also defeated Federer to hoist his second ATP World Tour title in Halle. The Croatian won the Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakech in April 2017 for his maiden title. Coric saved five match points against German Philipp Kohlschreiber in that title match.

2. Big-Match Borna
He improved to 8-14 against Top 5 players with his win against Federer. Coric also counts wins against Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray among those. Coric has lost both of his FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings with Novak Djokovic, who he will meet in Sunday’s final. “I love the big stage,” Coric told ATP World Tour Uncovered earlier this year.

3. Early Riser
Coric had beaten Nadal and Murray before he was even 19 years old. Coric beat the Spaniard when he was 17 (Basel 2014) and Murray when he was 18 (Dubai 2015). The Croatian was the 2014 ATP Star of Tomorrow presented by Emirates for being the youngest player to finish in the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings. 

4. Career-High ATP Ranking
Coric will rise to a career-high No. 13 in the ATP Rankings on 15 October. He arrived in Shanghai at No. 19, one place short of his current career-high No. 18 position achieved on 10 September.

Watch: Coric Returns To His Home Croatia

5. Worth The Wait
Coric entered Shanghai with an 0-2 record in Asia this year. The 21-year-old lost his opening match in Chengdu (l. to Norrie) and Beijing (l. to Lopez) before stunning Federer en route to his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 championship match in Shanghai.

6. Former #NextGenATP Star
The 21-year-old Coric will turn 22 on 14 November, making him ineligible for the 2018 Next Gen ATP Finals, to be held 6-10 November in Milan. But the Croatian had success during the inaugural event last year, going unbeaten in group play before falling in the semi-finals to Russian Andrey Rublev.

7. New Team, New Borna
Coric had worked with a number of coaches during the past few years. Earlier this year, he talked about how the frequent changes had hurt his tennis.

But this year Coric has been working with Kristijan Schneider and Riccardo Piatti and, judging by the results, the partnership has worked. Piatti is the main coach who doesn’t travel to every event; Schneider travels to most tournaments. Coric’s countryman Ivan Ljubicic is also on his team as his manager.

Watch Uncovered: Borna Back On Track

8. Fewer The Goals, The Better
Coric believes in goals but is now focused on having the right goals. The past two seasons, Coric wrote his goals down and focused on them throughout the year. But he was never hitting the marks, such as reaching the Top 20. This year, Coric changed his goal-setting outlook: No goals, only hard work concentrated on improving his game.

“I’m going to work on my game and we’ll see where it’s going to get me,” Coric told ATPWorldTour.com.

9. Not A Fan Of ‘Ordinary’
On his right bicep, Coric has a tattoo that reflects one of his life philosophies: ‘There is nothing worse in life than being ordinary’. He has showed it off on his Instagram.

10. The Camping Life
Coric played his first tournament outside of Croatia in Rome in 2005. He lost in the final, and his parents and sister went with him and stayed in a camper van.

Roger Federer fell short of reaching his fourth Rolex Shanghai Masters final on Saturday, losing in straight sets to the ever-improving Borna Coric. And while the loss is disappointing, the top seed is taking positives from his first event since the US Open.

“I must say I felt overall actually pretty good. So I’m happy about that,” Federer said. “It’s definitely something I can build on now for Basel and then for London and maybe Paris. I’m happy how the body has felt this week.”

Federer, who is next scheduled to play at the Swiss Indoors Basel (begins 22 October), a tournament he has won eight times, will drop to No. 3 in the ATP Rankings on Monday, with Novak Djokovic ascending to the No. 2 spot. But the Swiss did well to battle through two tough three-setters against Daniil Medvedev and Roberto Bautista Agut in Shanghai before showing some of his best form in ousting red-hot Kei Nishikori in the quarter-finals.

“I’m actually happy. I feel like I’m explosive out there, returning well. Serving, I think, it’s okay, could be even a little bit better. I don’t think I played a match where I didn’t get broken, so that’s something a bit more unusual for me,” said Federer, who has already guaranteed his spot at the Nitto ATP Finals. “But regardless, I think the court allowed for great ball striking. I felt like I got some great rhythm, whereas in Cincinnati I came out of the tournament, I was, like, ‘I don’t know where my game is. It’s the finals. Not bad. But I couldn’t tell you if I’m hitting the ball well or not’.”

Federer is referring to this year’s Western & Southern Open where he lost to Djokovic in the final as the Serbian completed his Career Golden Masters by lifting the only ATP World Tour Masters 1000 trophy he was missing. Perhaps the one thing the Swiss will focus on moving forward is holding serve.

The 37-year-old began the week fifth all-time in service games won at 88.8 per cent, according to Infosys ATP Scores & Stats. This week, he was victorious in 41 of 50 service games, a rate of 82 per cent. Coric broke Federer twice in the semi-finals.

“He didn’t give me many chances on his serve, and for me to stay with him, I should have maybe done a better job on my own serve,” Federer said. “But then again, it wasn’t bad either. And then in the rallies, I thought he had more punch than me. Maybe it’s a lot of tennis this week, but quite honestly, I’m happy how I’m playing… This was a good week again. I’m happy about my reaction after the US Open.”

As simple as it sounds, Coric was simply the better player on Saturday evening. For Federer, there’s no big secret about it.

“I thought he was better. I think he had more punch on the ball. He served better,” Federer said. “I think that’s it.”

Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo have become the fourth doubles team to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 11-18 November. The Polish-Brazilian team secured their place as a result of advancing on Saturday to the Rolex Shanghai Masters final, which represented their sixth ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title match (3-2 record).

Buy Your London Tickets

Kubot and Melo have captured three ATP World Tour titles in 2018 on the hard courts of the Sydney International (d. Struff/Troicki) and the China Open in Beijing (d. Marach/Pavic), plus the Gerry Weber Open grass-court crown in Halle (d. Zverev/Zverev). Last month, the duo also finished runner-up at the US Open (l. to M. Bryan/Sock).

Melo has now qualified for the prestigious season finale for the sixth straight year (since 2013). Three years ago, the Brazilian advanced to the final in London with Ivan Dodig (l. to Bryans). Kubot has competed at The O2 in London in 2009-10, 2014 and 2017, when, together with Melo, they finished as the year-end No. 1 team and advanced to the championship match (l. to Kontinen/Peers).

Kubot, currently World No. 5, became No. 1 in the ATP Doubles Rankings for the first time on 8 January 2018 and has spent a total of 19 weeks at the summit of men’s professional tennis. Melo has also led the team game, on a total of four occasions for 56 weeks overall.