By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday February 3 2024
Bublik and Coric will meet for the second time, as each angles for a fourth career title.
Photo Source: TTV
The 2024 Open Sud de France semifinals featured the top four seeds for the first time in tournament history. No.2-seeded Alexander Bublik and No.4-seeded Borna Coric survived the day and will meet in the final.
2022 champion Bublik rallied past Felix Auger-Aliassime 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, completing his third comeback from a set down of the week behind 14 aces and 74 percent first serves won.
The Kazkah, ranked 27 this week, improves to 2-2 against Auger-Aliassime and 9-2 lifetime at the Open Sud de France as he reaches his 10th ATP final.
He had to rally from a break down in the third to seal off the Canadian in two hours and 39 minutes.
"I am happy to get through," Bublik said, after improving to 55-37 lifetime indoors. "Especially on indoor courts. I am happy to get through and I left it all out there. I will try to win it again tomorrow."
Bublik is poised to hit a career-high ranking next week – he is currently at 23 in the live rankings, from 27 (career-high 25).
Coric took a less complicated route to the final, as he opened up a 6-3, 4-1 lead over top-seeded Holger Rune before the Danish 20-year-old retired due to a right forearm injury.
Rune, struggled to get pace on his serve in the second set, then took a long medical time out after the third game of the second set. He pulled the plug after Rune broke for 4-1, the elapsed time of the match hitting 57 minutes.
Coric has not dropped a set this week in Montpellier and he is into his ninth career ATP final. He will play for his fourth title against Bublik – he lost his only previous meeting to the 27-year-old at Halle last year.
Coric is into his first final since he claimed the title at Cincinnati in 2022.
“It was not easy, I didn’t come into the match very good, but I started to feel better,” Coric said. “Obviously I was not happy with the way it finished. I saw that he was not serving big anymore, and not going for the balls so much, so I just wanted to finish – I just knew I need to stay focused.”
Coric looks forward to improving his performance against hard-serving Bublik.
“It’s gonna be a very fun match for sure, we played in Halle last year, last year I got absolutely destroyed, so hopefully this time I can do a little bit better.”