Borna Coric competed with great confidence on Tuesday to beat ninth-seeded Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta 6-4, 6-2 at the Mutua Madrid Open in one hour and 22 minutes. The Croatian won five straight games from 3-4 in the first set en route to his second straight win over the World No. 11, who he also beat in the first week of 2018 at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open.
Coric, who broke Carreno Busta’s serve on three occasions, was serving at 5-2, 15/15 in the second set when heavy rain began to fall at the Caja Magica at 4:19 p.m. local time, which left courtside spectators on Court Manolo Santana scurrying back to seats higher up under the roof. After a 40-minute delay in play, Coric, last year’s quarter-finalist, needed three further points — finishing with a smash winner — to complete his 16th match win of the season.
The 21-year-old, who has a 10-3 record at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments this year — highlighted by a first semi-final run at the BNP Paribas Open (l. to Federer), will next challenge Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff, who knocked out qualifier Marius Copil of Romania 6-4, 6-4 in 66 minutes.
Robin Haase broke a four-match losing streak on Tuesday to record the 200th match win of his career with an impressive first-round victory.
The Dutchman, currently No. 44 in the ATP Rankings, barely put a foot wrong in beating South Korea’s Hyeon Chung, the reigning Next Gen ATP Finals champion, 6-2, 6-0 in 54 minutes. Haase won 10 straight games from 2-2 in the first set.
Haase will next play eighth-seeded Belgian David Goffin, who leads 3-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. Haase won their last and only meeting on clay, 7-5, 6-1, in July 2017 at the J. Safra Sarasin Swiss Open Gstaad.
Kyle Edmund built on his recent run of form in Madrid, defeating Sydney International champion Daniil Medvedev 6-4, 6-0. The Brit reached his maiden ATP World Tour final at the Grand Prix Hassan II in April and last week won his first title, in doubles, at the Millennium Estoril Open (w/ Norrie). Edmund saved all seven break points he faced in the 77-minute clash and will next meet two-time champion Novak Djokovic in the second round.
Ryan Harrison set up an all-American meeting with Miami Open presented by Itaú champion John Isner. The 26-year-old edged a tight two-set match against Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-4, 7-6(7).
Did You Know?
Borna Coric reached his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final at the BNP Paribas Open in March, beating Kevin Anderson in the quarter-finals, prior to losing to Roger Federer 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. Later that month, he advanced to the Miami Open presented by Itau quarter-finals (l. to A. Zverev).