By Chris Oddo | Sunday June 24, 2018
The tenth title at Gerry Weber Open, and 99th overall, was not to be for grass guru Roger Federer on Sunday in Halle, Germany.
Instead it was Borna Coric of Croatia who stormed to the title, stunning Federer and the fans who have come out to worship the Swiss in all his glory over the years on the grass that saw him enter the final with a 63-6 record and nine titles in two.
But this week’s version of the masterful Federer was a bit off the mark. The 36-year-old fumbled more of his lines than usual over the course of a weird week that saw him need to save two match points before defeating Benoit Paire in the second round before making his way to the finals.
Even Federer himself admitted that after winning over Denis Kudla in the semifinals—his eighth win in a frantic two week stretch—he may have been missing out on a valuable chunk of practice time on the grass.
No matter, because he picked up his level quite a bit on Sunday, but the problem was that Coric didn’t budge and was ready to tackle the giant challenge of facing the great Federer at a place that he has owned in the past.
Coric saved two set points in the first-set breaker, and eventually took it 7-6(8). Though Federer secured the only break critically in the eighth game of the second set, the Swiss’ typically unbreakable serve let him down in the third and he ended up getting broken twice and dropping his final two service games as Coric snuck away with an eye-opening 7-6(6), 3-6, 6-2 victory for his second career title, and his first on grass.
“Just really surprised... I had not even dreamed of this," said Coric.
Coric entered the tournament with a 2-7 lifetime record on grass, but he showed that he can be a force on the tricky service by defeating No.2-seeded Alexander Zverev and top-seeded Federer en route to the title.
"I think the key maybe in hindsight was trying to [win] that first-set tie-break. I had more chances throughout the set, I had chances at 6/4," Federer lamented, The Swiss, bidding for his 99th career title and 18th on grass, still believes he’s in the right form to get back to the top of the heap at Wimbledon, which begins a week from Monday.
"I’m definitely going to leave with my head high, thinking it’s been a good run in Stuttgart and Halle,” he said.