Borna Coric — The Beauty of Tennis
It’s been awhile since our last Beauty of Tennis post, but to make up for lost time, we’re giving you a whopping 27 images of #NextGen rising star Borna Coric. The long and lean Croatian player combines strength and strategy in his crafty game, and the elegance of his form along with his swoon-worthy good looks make him an excellent candidate for this artistic tennis series.
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As always, we try to bring you a wide range of photos that play with focus, cropping, filters, and more to hopefully inspire you to look at Borna — and tennis itself — in new and exciting ways. One thing you may notice as you page through the gallery is an emphasis on Borna’s hands, and the ways they reveal both intense strength and an almost delicate grace.
We always choose an excerpt of poetry that we feel represents some aspect of the player or their game, and we hope Borna will forgive us landing on a seemingly morbidly-titled poem that is actually about living life to the fullest. One of Borna’s qualities that has always stood out for us has been his fighting spirit; no matter how difficult a match, no matter the pressure, no matter how dire the scoreline, he will battle to the very last point. That strength of will has not only netted him more and more success as his career has progressed, but has also earned him respect from both fellow players and fans, regardless of whether he wins a match or not.
You are beaten to earth? Well, well, what’s that!
Come up with a smiling face.
It’s nothing against you to fall down flat,
But to lie there-that’s disgrace.
The harder you’re thrown, why the higher you bounce
Be proud of your blackened eye!
It isn’t the fact that you’re licked that counts;
It’s how did you fight-and why?— Edmund Vance Cooke
As we noted in our new profile entry for Borna, he has a quirky sense of humor, so we thought he might appreciate the “Dr. Seuss for adults” vibe of this piece as well as its apropos message of never giving up the fight.
So now it’s time to SCROLL DOWN for the slideshow of images to see Borna in action! The photos come from four different years, so you can also test your knowledge by guessing just how much of a young babe that our “Baby Borna” was in each pic — check the dates in the watermarks to see if you’re correct!
Click on any pic to start the BORNA CORIC SLIDESHOW. Let us know which shot is your favorite!
(Images best viewed on a big screen, but hopefully the gallery works well for you all on mobile as well!)
PHOTOS: c2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 Valerie David for TennisInsideOut.com.
Poem Excerpt from: “How Did You Die?” by Edmund Vance Cooke
