The results have looked pretty good to this point. Coric has knocked off some very talented players on his way to getting to the final four, including victories over Donald Young, Albert Ramos Vinolas, Roberto Bautista Agut and Taylor Fritz before having to face Anderson, who has been playing some of the best tennis of his life over the past few months.
The 31-year-old was fresh off of a finals run in Acapulco, where he came up just short against Juan Martin del Potro. If the South African found a way to win that match then he would have been celebrating back-to-back titles, as he came away with the victory at the New York Open back in February. And let's not forget that the prior time Anderson was in New York, he finished runner-up at the US Open.
Anderson, however, had also never made it past the quarterfinals at a Masters 1000 event. For as talented a player as he is, that's a surprising stat, and one that should have given Coric confidence.
Nonetheless, the big server pounced all over Coric early on, winning the first set in only a half hour. It looked for all the world that Anderson that would rise to the occasion, but that wasn't the case. Coric dug as deep as he could in this match, and it resulted in some incredible tennis. Not only did Coric win the second set to keep his tournament hopes alive, but he also came back from a break down in the third. He was not going to be denied, even in a tiebreaker against a player that should have a clear advantage in that scenario with his giant serve.
If you want to pinpoint what went wrong for Anderson, you should look at his forehand. After absolutely dominating with the shot in the first set, the world No. 9 slowly started to lose his confidence in it. And by the time the tiebreaker came around, his forehand had turned into an error sieve. Combine that with the fact that Coric was playing flawless tennis from the baseline and you can understand why the match played out the way it did.
Coric will now face Roger Federer in the tournament's semifinal. Nobody knows exactly what will happen next, but with this win over Anderson, Coric has guaranteed himself a spot in the Top 40. His goal was to make a splash in 2018, and he's well on his way to doing so.
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