INDIAN WELLS, Calif.—The most compelling aspect of Wednesday’s fourth-round match between American Taylor Fritz and Croatian Borna Coric—the two youngest players remaining in the draw—was that the stakes were supremely high for each.
Fritz, playing what he’d after call the biggest match of his career, was out to reach his first Masters 1000 quarterfinal, a goal with exceptional geographic resonance for the Southern California-raised 20-year-old.
Though only 11 months older than Fritz, Coric bore the dual weight of precocity and comparison, touted in his teens as a stylistic successor to Novak Djokovic. Ranked as high as 33 in 2015, already having reached two Masters 1000 quarters, Coric had mildly sputtered the last couple of years, to the point where his current ranking was 49.
At the start, Coric held all the cards, playing the kind of crisp, airtight tennis that had seen him drop just nine games in his first three matches. At 1-1, Coric broke Fritz at 15. Two games later, Fritz now serving at 1-3, 15-30, the American lazily struck a backhand volley wide and shanked a forehand to surrender the second break and, ostensibly, the set. In 26 minutes, Coric had snapped it up, 6-2. It was indeed a Djokovic-like effort. Movement to the ball, footwork around the ball, sustained depth—scarcely flashy, heavily solid.
“He’s an extremely good competitor,” said Fritz. “You have to earn a lot of points.”
Fritz proves the premise, articulated by the likes of Pete Sampras, that tall, all-court players often take longer to put all the parts and pieces together. One part of Fritz is the athletic shot-maker, a big-serving man willing to strike boldly off both sides with superb depth, penetration and bravado. But Fritz throughout this tournament has also shown an ability to be patient, steadily grinding his way through long rallies.
But the second set saw the intrusive and metaphorically noisy arrival of a third opponent: The wind, a small flurry of a breeze that greatly accelerated throughout the second set and swirled in many directions. Artistry, vanity and bravado vanished, blown away (pun intended) by awkwardness, persistence and poise.
“It’s not going to be nice,” said Coric about the conditions. “You just go out there. You fight and you just try to win.” Said Fritz, “It was tough to manage.”
The wind, though, likely kept Fritz from getting steamrolled.
“It changed my momentum a lot,” said Coric.
Match point from Coric vs. Fritz: