Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal all progressed into the third round after winning their respective matches in Paris Bercy on Wednesday.
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Federer will face hard-serving American John Isner in the round of 16 in Paris on Thursday. Coric, regarded as one of the rising stars of tennis, beat Murray 6-1, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the Dubai Championships in February.
Both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were in action later Wednesday against Andreas Seppi and Lukas Rosol.
From then on, Federer thrilled the Paris crowd with one-handed backhand winners down the line, subtle volleys at the net and overhead smashes, all played at an electric pace that proved the 34-year-old is in great physical shape even this late in the season.
On court in the second round at the final event of the regular ATP season, Nadal’s compatriot David Ferrer won his opening match over Alexandr Dolgopolov of the Ukraine 6-2, 6-2.
“I lost to him quickly last time and today it was very different”, Murray said.
Murray is rated third favourite but arguably has the least chance of beating Djokovic, who he is seeded to meet in the semis, in the environment in question, while it remains to be seen how focused he will be with the World Tour Finals and Davis Cup final looming large. “I just said that was like my next long-term goal I had”.
Nadal, who lost to Roger Federer in the Swiss Indoors final on Sunday, will next play either 11th-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa or Dominic Thiem of Austria.
Nadal is coming off a loss to Federer in the Basel final, but has rebounded to No. 6 in the rankings after dropping to 10th earlier this year.
“A lot of time this year, I was not able to fight the way that I wanted”, he said. The return can be a big change for me next year.
“For me, the big improvement and big confidence is when I am able to find solutions again”, he said. “I’m humble enough to say, ‘If I keep playing bad, it’s probably going to be trouble, ‘ but I had the feeling in a few moments that I was going to play better”.
“I have had a few things that I could have done better tonight”.
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In other second round match-ups, Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov upset former US Open champion Marin Cilic of Croatia 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/2), and 16th-ranked Goffin was too good for Dusan Lajovic of Serbia, winning 6-2, 6-2.
