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17-year-old Croat Borna Coric and 26-year-old Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut were honoured in London at the O2 Arena yesterday. Coric received the award for ATP Star of Tomorrow Award presented by Emirates for being the youngest player ranked in the Top 100, while the 26-year-old Bautista Agut was voted by fellow players as the Most Improved Player of the Year.
Coric delighted to receive award
Coric entered the season ranked outside 300, but has now ended the season inside the top 100 ranked at 92. He has had some breakthrough performances this year. He reached the quarter finals of the Vegeta Croatia Open Umag quarter-finals where he lost to Fabio Fognini in July. He qualified for the U.S Open where he got knocked out in the 2nd round. His biggest result came when he beat Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals of the Basel open.
“This is one of the biggest awards so I’m very happy to be here. It’s great, this place, all these facilities, and I’m very proud of myself as well,” Coric said. “I beat a couple of Top 10, Top 20 guys so it was a great season for me, and I just hope I can improve a bit,” he said.
Bautista Agut looking to get break into the top 10 next year
Bautista Agut climbed from a year-end No. 59 Emirates ATP Ranking last season to a career-high No. 14 in 2014. He has had a lot of notable performances this year. He won two titles this year and also reached the 4th round of the Australian Open where he beat Juan Martin Del Potro in 5 sets. He also reached the semi-finals of the Mutua Madrid Open where he lost to eventual champion Rafael Nadal.
It’s important that the other players respect the work that I’ve done,” Bautista Agut said. “I have to be happy with the year I had and hopefully I can repeat it next year. I never imagined it (to have a year like this). It was very helpful to get good results at Auckland and Australia and then be healthy to be consistent all year,” he said after receiving the award.
