Busta and Berdych sent packing on day of upsets

Doha: It was a day of upsets at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open as two seeded players failed to make it past the first round of the ATP Tour event in Qatar.

On the second day of the event, the second and third seeds of the tournament, Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych and Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta were forced to make quick exits from Doha after losing their matches on the centre court of the Khalifa Intertnational Tennis and Squash Complex.

Rising Croatian star Borna Coric set the upset trend into motion as he came from a set behind against Busta of Spain to pull off a stunning win in the first round tie in Doha yesterday.

In the second upset of the day, Berdych went down to German Jan-Lennard Struff 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 in the second meeting between the two, a match which lasted two hours eight minutes.

Yesterday, the 21-year-old Croatian, making his Doha debut, saved three match points to win the engrossing fortune fluctuating match 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (10/8) in two hours 41 minutes to register an impressive win of his short career.

“I think I played very good. I didn’t know what to expect playing the first match of the year. It’s always maybe a little bit tricky, you know, but I can say from the beginning that I was playing very good,”

Coric told reporters after his win, his first against the World No. 10.

“The first set, I lost it, but also I can say that I was playing good. You know, it was two or three points. We decided the set. I just knew that I need to remain playing very good. And I need to make even more pressure. That’s what I was doing,” said the right hander, with a World No. 48 rank.

“Then in the third set, obviously it was luck as well. But I was always brave. I was running for the shots. That was feeling, I was going for the win” Coric added as he became first player to score a win over a top-10 player.

For Coric, the win over Busta is his second over a player ranked among the top ten. Last year, he stunned Andy Murray, the win over Briton which he stills rates as his best so far.

Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany returns the ball to Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic during the first round match of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha yesterday.

“This is a huge win, for sure, especially because it’s the first match of the season. I normally don’t start the season very well, so I’m very happy with that. But you cannot compare it over the win with Andy. He was World No. 1 and stuff like that. So you cannot compare that. But obviously I’m also very happy with this win. You know, I’m going to take it.”

Coric said his success formula in saving three match points was simple ‘don’t miss’.

“I was just saying don’t miss. Don’t miss this point because we played actually very long tie-break. I was a little bit tired and I also knew he was tired. I know how I feel when I’m match point down. I didn’t want to have very long rally. So I was just trying to make him play as much as I can. And that’s what I did. Then he gave me a little bit shorter ball and I just took advantage of it. It’s very easy,” said Coric, who turned pro in 2013 has one ATP title against his name.

Coric plays Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili in the second round, who was termed as a ’tricky opponent’.

“I didn’t look at the whole bottom half to be honest because I’m playing against a guy who beat me twice in last year. He’s a tricky opponent to play. And I’ve also played very long match. So it’s not going to be easy, for sure. So that’s my main focus; that’s my only focus, to be honest,” he said about his next round match.

“I don’t know who I’m going to play in the quarters. To be honest, I really haven’t looked at it. I’m not very interested in it, to be honest. Because I have played very good today but it doesn’t mean anything. Tomorrow is a new day. It’s a new match. So I just need to focus on that.

Struff, who beat the 2015 Doha finalist Berdych, started on a positive note by winning the first set by playing a attacking brand of tennis.

The former Wimbledon finalist bounced back to take the second but the German wrapped up the match in the decider by winning the tie-break.

In the second round, he will take on the winner of Gael Monfils-Paolo Lorenzi.

In the other interesting results, unseeded Peter Gojowczyk of Germany beat sixth seed Filip Krajinovic of Serbia 6-4, 6-1, while Mirza Basic, a qualifier from Bosnia defeated Andreas Haider-Maurer of Austria 6-4, 6-3.

Basic will meet eight seed Feliciano Lopez of Spain in the next round, the Spaniard defeated compatriot  Guillermo Garcia-Lopez  6-4, 5-7, 7-6 to advance.

Top seed, Austria’s Dominic Thiem, won his first round match in straight sets on Monday.