"It was a very tough day, a very long day as well" - Coric after booking Cincinnati final

Borna Coric expected to play far earlier in the day but the wait was well worth it because he booked the Western & Southern Open final.

Coric arrived here ranked outside of the top 100 and he used his protected ranking to get into the main draw. It's been a slow rise for the Croatian who missed over a year due to a shoulder injury that is now in the past. It was a long wait for him yesterday but it ended up being worth it:

"It was a very tough day, a very long day as well. I didn't expect to play at 7:30. I came here at 3 o'clock and I thought I was going to play a little bit earlier. Then I thought I was going to play later because of the delay. It was a crazy day but in the end, it did finish very good. I was obviously very happy with my tennis today, I was playing extremely well."

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It was a bit of a tricky start for Coric who did not seem to have his precision as he did the previous days. He admitted to not feeling it initially but he did find his rhytm later on:

"At the beginning I was not there, I was not feeling the ball very well. Then I did find my rhythm. I started to serve better, I started to play much better and I think that was the key to the match."

The win pushes Coric back inside the top 50 as he will be ranked no worse then 48th with the final. That's a jump of over 100 spots. A win against Tsitsipas later today would push him even further.