He’s only twenty-five but has seemingly been on the tour longer than some veterans. Borna Coric topped out at number twelve in the ATP rankings back in 2018, but injuries to his shoulder, back, and knee have kept him in and out of this highest level of the game multiple times throughout his career.
Coric has had a resurgent season in 2022 with a win at the Masters 1000 tournament in Cincinatti where dropped only one set and reclaiming a spot in the top-30 of the ATP rankings. For now, it seems he will be a formidable opponent with his patented brand of defensive baseline tennis backed by his incredible two handed backhand.
When it comes to equipment, Borna has tinkered a bit with his racquets but seems to have settled for the time being.
Let’s take a look at his weapon of choice!
- Endorsed Racquet: Wilson Ultra 100 v4
- Actual Racquet: Wilson P25 Pro Stock
- Strings: Babolat RPM Blast 16 (1.30) @ 28/26 kg
A Bit of Borna’s Racquet History
He spent the early part of his career with Yonex racquets: the VCore Tour F and Ezone Dr 98 frames, or at least paintjobs of them.
Not long into his career, he inked a sponsorship contract with Wilson. He worked his way through multiple frames, including the H19 pro stock, now known as the Ultra Pro/Tour in retail form, in both 16×19 and 18×20 string pattern.
- Clearly an H19 to the trained eye. Though, it looks like somebody blacked out the paint with a black topcoat at this point in time.
Is that an Ultra?
Coric was eventually spotted at the 2018 US Open with a new frame. It had the paintjob of a Wilson Ultra but only 6 mains through the throat instead of the usual eight on an H19 along with different grommets and what looked like an oval beam shape.
Eventually, the sleuths of the Tennis Warehouse message board determined it to be the Wilson P25 pro stock.
Borna is still sporting this P25 frame under the new Wilson Ultra v4 cosmetic. The P25 is a 100 square inch frame modeled after the Prince O3 White (minus the O-shaped ports of course).
Other users of this frame include Kiki Mladenovic of France and huge serving Sabine Lisicki before she switched to Yonex.
Borna’s Specs
In his earlier days on tour, Borna was using a racquet that was quite heavy: 335g, 31.5 cm balance, and unknown swingweight unstrung. That’s over 350g strung, and we can suppose the swingweight is quite high too because of the large amounts of visible lead on his frames.
Judging by different photos, though, he liked to experiment with specs, placing lead differently from tournament to tournament.
- We can see the lead at the sides and top of the racquet hoop here.
Coric has reportedly gone much lighter with his frames during his current comeback to ease the load on his shoulder.
As of this article, there is no source for his current specs or string tension, but he seems to have at least ditched the lead inside the hoop, perhaps opting for lead solely under the bumper guard.
Borna used to string his racquets with Luxilon ALU Power 125 mains and Wilson Natural gut crosses around 23 kg or about 51 pounds.
It appears he is still using a gut hybrid with silver polyester main strings, so he likely has not changed this.
Longevity
Having been injured multiple times, Borna now seems intent on tailoring his equipment to his body’s previous shortcomings. He uses a powerful frame in the P25 which both complements his defensive baseline playing style and should help ease the load on his shoulder.
He has reportedly decreased the weight of his frames, which also decreases fatigue to his arm. Maintaining natural gut crosses keeps the stringbed soft and adds some power to his polyester main strings.
When we consider this, it seems Borna is doing everything he can to keep his shoulder healthy. If he succeeds in this, I’d reckon we see him remain in the top 30 as a dangerous floater in any draw.
If you’re interested in other ATP players’ racquets, I listed all the top 100 players’ racquets in this post.