I'm a Borna Coric guy now
Federer's retirement introduced a certain exigency into my tennis fandom: I no longer have a player on the men's side to fawn over. Coco Gauff is my girl for, safely, the next decade, but there's a sizeable RF-shaped chasm on the ATP tour. I've been compiling a shortlist for a while in anticipation, the top of which has perpetually featured unassuming Croat Borna Coric.
I was mostly recently admiring Coric during his match against Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Vienna Open last week. I admit that this admiration was decidedly reinforced by my disdain for Tsitsipas, who is equally insufferable on and off the court (follow him on Twitter for the dumbest quasi-prophetic observations you can imagine). Still, it's impossible to deny that Tsitsipas is an excellent, complete player, and Coric beat him. He absorbed the pace of the Greek's strong groundstrokes, turning defense into offense on a dime. Plus, he just made far fewer mistakes.
Like most players, Coric has his little on-court idiosyncrasies: the twitchy back leg during serve preparation; the sorta awkward fist pumps; the grunts that often intimate sexual release. But everybody's got those. What everybody doesn't have is a clean, compact, reliable two-handed backhand. Coric can take tiny Kyrgios-like backswings, or prepare early and drive through the ball with his hips and shoulders. It's seriously one of the best two-handers I've seen on tour.
If Coric's backhand is dynamic, beautiful, snappy, etc., his forehand is, well, confusing; I truly don't understand how he generates power with it. His elbow is often tucked in near his chest, restricting the full swing needed to hit a big ball. Still, like most players, he hits about twice as many winners on the forehand side than the backhand. I love these inexplicable technical minutia; it's a large part of what makes player analysis so fun. Like, how the hell does Daniil Medvedev, arguably the most formidable opponent on the men's tour right now, win so many matches with such awkward, ugly technique? It's baffling.
There are plenty of other #CoricFacts that demand our attention. Perhaps most notably, he's the only active player not named Novak Djokovic to have a winning record against Rafael Nadal, his first win coming when he was just 17. Before undergoing knee and shoulder surgery in 2018, Coric was on the brink of the top 10 during one of the most competitive years in men's tennis. Not only were all of the Big Three active, but the top of the rankings also consisted of Alexander Zverev, Juan Martin del Potro, and Dominic Thiem. Making it past the third round of a major in 2018 was worthy of a prize in itself.
As the ATP season approaches a near-standstill, Coric sits at 26th in the world. At 25 years old, he's got a lot of tennis left in the tank, if he stays healthy. I sincerely think he has the makings of a top-five player, and that he has a major title in his future. It's hard to pick a new favorite, but sometimes you just gotta impulsively and somewhat randomly make a declaration: I'm a Borna Coric guy now.