Thursday 18 / April / 2024
Chennai, India: World number four Stan Wawrinka cruised past Croatian teenager Borna Coric 6-3 7-5 to claim his third successive Chennai Open title on Sunday.
The top-seeded Swiss defeated the 19-year-old Coric, the youngest ATP World Tour finalist since Kei Nishikori at Delray Beach in 2008, to win his fourth title in six years in the Southern Indian city of Chennai.
Wawrinka, who has two grand slam titles, converted his first break point to take a 4-2 lead in the opening set.
Coric stretched his opponent in the next game but Wawrinka managed to hold on to his service game, which went on for over nine minutes.
The second set went with serve till Wawrinka broke with a sublime backhand down the line to go up 6-5 and then served out the match with Coric making an error at the net.
The win will give Wawrinka confidence that he can repeat his 2014 Australian Open success when the season's opening grand slam begins in Melbourne on Jan. 18.
But for now he wants to enjoy his first success of the year.
"I was expecting a pretty tough match. He is really good and he always finds a way to fight and come back in the match," the French Open champion, who fired 15 aces and won 34 of 38 points on his first serve, said at the presentation.
"Let's first enjoy the title. It's a very important tournament for me, that's why I like to come back here. Perfect conditions to start.
"I am not thinking about the rest of the year now."
Coric was satisfied with his efforts during the week in which he had to win a trio of three-set matches to book his place in his maiden ATP final.
"It's my first (final) so I'm going to make some mistakes. So give me some time please," Coric said.
