Plenty of analogies have been used in tennis for various reasons but American rising star Sebastian Korda has his own unique one.
The 20-year-old is a rising star of American tennis after breaking into the world’s top 100 earlier this year following his run to the final of the Delray Beach Open. A former Australian Open junior champion, Korda is currently experiencing his best ever run in a Masters 1000 event at the Miami Open. On Monday he crushed the inform Aslan Karatsev 6-3, 6-0, to reach the fourth round on his tournament debut.
Growing up, the world No.87 was surrounded by tennis with his father being Petr Korda and his mother is former top 30 player Regina Rajchrtová. Both of whom represented Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic but are now living in America. Korda explains that his mother taught him to act like a cat on the court in what was a direct reference to another past star of the sport.
“Both my parents always loved kind of how Stefan Edberg used to move on court, how silent he was and he was like a cat at the net,” he explained during his press conference.
“That was always my mum’s favourite thing was to always try to be smooth on the court and not make any sound and kind of just flow around the court in a way.’
“I think I played at the US Open against Shapovalov, and that was one of the things the commentators said, so that made my mum really happy.”
Due to his family connections, Korda has been able to mix with some former legends of the sport over the years. Including a training stint with eight-time Grand Slam champion Andre Agassi in Las Vegas last December. He is coached by his father on the Tour.
“I’d say I have one of the best teams around me experience-wise. I have my dad who was a Grand Slam champion, No. 2 in the world, my mum who was a top 30 player and Radek Stepanek who is like my brother, we are always in contact,” Korda outlined.
“Then to have a friend and mentor as Andre Agassi, I mean, I don’t think you can have a better team. There is a lot of experience and a lot of knowledge passing around. All I’m trying to do is just kind of keep my ears open and listen to as much of it, and hopefully I can take it and then do something with it.”
Impressively Miami is only Korda’s eighth appearance in an ATP Tour tournament in his career. He has also been playing on the lower-level Challenger Tour which he has won two titles on, including the Quimper Open in January.
The next test for Korda in Miami will be Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman who defeated Adrian Mannarino 6-1, 6-4, in his third round match. It will be the first meeting between the two on the Tour with the world No.9 admitting that he has already been impressed by the youngster.
“He’s a young guy, playing very good tennis. I’m watching him and I think he’s similar to Berdych, how he moves, how he hit the ball,” said Schwartzman.
“He’s really young, but he’s step on court and he looks like he’s been playing for 10 years already. That’s good for him.”
Korda is one of four American men to reach the fourth round in Miami. Something that hasn’t occurred at the tournament since 2004.
