Borna Coric joined Frenchman Garcia and also won an unprecedented title in Cincinnati

Croatian Borna Coric joined France’s Caroline Garcia for another unprecedented victory at the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati, beating experienced Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final.

Coric, Rafael Nadal’s executioner in the second round, has become the lowest world-ranked champion (152) of a Masters 1000 since the creation in 1990 of this series, second in importance behind the Grand Slam.

Coric, who will jump from position 152 to 29 on Monday, made a final surprise by beating Stefanos Tsitsipas (7) with a resounding 7-6 (7/0) and 6-2.

“Honestly I was not prepared for this speech five days ago. I thought I was losing in the first round,” acknowledged Coric who, in addition to Nadal, also left seed Roberto Bautista, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Cameron Norrie.

No tennis player had lifted a Masters 1000 title starting from a lower position in the standings than Coric.

The player who has held this milestone so far has been the Spaniard Roberto Carretero, who won in 1996 in Hamburg from 143rd place.

With a match in a state of grace, Coric celebrated his third ATP title and his first since 2018, when he was considered one of the youngsters with the biggest future on the circuit.

Coric’s upward trajectory, who became 12th in the ATP and runner-up at the Shanghai Masters 1000 in 2018, was slowed by a shoulder injury that ended up being operated on in May last year and left him a full year. in white.

For his part, Tsitsipas, winner of two Masters 1000 on clay in Monte Carlo, is still unable to succeed in an event of this hierarchy on hard courts like Cincinnati.

“I still hope to come back here and win one day,” said the Greek. “I always ran into robots in the final.”

Garcia, the other bump.

In the women’s final, French Caroline Garcia defeated Czech Petra Kvitova 6-2, 6-4 and became the first WTA 1000 champion to pass the qualifying round.

Garcia, who will rise from 35th to 17th place in the world rankings, achieved his third WTA 1000 category trophy and his first since 2017.

“It’s hard to believe I’m here today. What a week!” Said Garcia, 28, excitedly.

Since June, when he won Roland Garros in doubles, Garcia has amassed 27 wins, most of the circuit, and has lifted the trophies in Cincinnati, Bad Homburg and Warsaw.

Cincinnati is the tenth title in a career that has so far peaked at two consecutive victories in 2017 at the WTA 1000 in Wuhan and Beijing, which catapulted her to fourth place in the world rankings.

“I want to thank my family,” Garcia said. “My parents have pushed me since I was little. We had difficult times, difficult decisions but they continued to support me and my style of play despite what people were saying.”

With her stunning win in Cincinnati, where she played two qualifiers and then fired three WTA Top-10 players (Maria Sakkari, Jessica Pegula and Aryna Sabalenka), Garcia will return to the top 20 for the first time on Monday since 2019.

Instead Kvitova, double Wimbledon champion (2011 and 2014), was one step away from reaching her ninth WTA 1000 title at 32.